text:
It's been a long time coming – almost exactly three years since it was first announced, in fact – but Mafia II is finally here. We've seen a lot of the game prior to its release; learned about its characters, its attention to detail and its aim to immerse players in its sharply realized mid-century Mob fiction. So far, it's seemed like a worthy enough successor to the original Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven, but obviously it's got a lot to live up to.
So, here's the first thing you should know about Mafia II: It's not the revolutionary game that its predecessor was. In some ways, it even feels like a big step back for the car-crime genre, with a structure that's so linear and narrowly focused that we have to wonder why the developers bothered to set it in an open world at all. Once you come to terms with that, though, you'll find a charming, brilliantly written mob drama that's enormously fun to play through.
Unlike your Grand Theft Autos and just about every other open-world game, Mafia II features no side missions to pursue, no mission-givers to go and find, and no spontaneous events to distract you from the task at hand. The game is divided into chapters, which usually begin with Vito being woken up at home by a phone call. You're then directed to drive somewhere and meet with someone before being thrown headlong into firefights, car chases or (and these are rare) stealth missions.
Above: Shoot cars in the gas tank, and you can make them explode with a single bullet
Apart from a couple of annoying "follow that car but don't get too close" tasks, the missions tend to be enjoyable even at their most thuddingly straightforward, and the action will be more or less instantly familiar to anyone who's played a car-crime game. Vito can steal cars, either by jacking them while in motion, by breaking their windows when they're parked or – if you don't want to deface your new ride – by picking their locks with a quick minigame. The cars themselves, which range from crawling 1920s shitwagons to beefy '50s hotrods, all handle well enough (and are enormously fun to ramp up to ridiculous speeds on the freeway), although it isn't uncommon to fishtail or spin out during high-speed pursuits.
Gunfights, meanwhile, follow the Gears of War model, with lots of emphasis on sticky cover and enemies who know how to use it as well as you do. Better than you do, in fact; while Vito can't blind-fire around corners, his enemies can, and that's kind of a pain in the ass. When you're not getting into fights in the streets – which can break out if you do anything to piss off the cops or rival gangsters – the missions take you through big interior spaces, ranging from a warehouse to a hotel to a huge Chinese restaurant, which tend to be filled with cover points, destructible scenery and faceless goons to gun down. Which, by the way, you can do with an improbably large arsenal that includes several types of pistol, Tommy guns, Molotovs, grenades, shotguns and a full array of World War II service weapons from both the Allied and Axis sides.
Above: That includes a devastating German MG-42 machinegun. Sadly, you only use it twice
If you prefer a more nonlethal approach, there's also a simple system for dealing out hand-to-hand punishment. Run up and punch an enemy, for example, and you'll enter into a one-on-one fistfight that revolves around two- or three-button combos and context-sensitive finishing moves that enable you to slam your opponents against walls.
It's fun, but it feels artificial and weirdly out of place, and has limited uses at best. Sometimes it's mandated by the story, but you can also start a fistfight in the middle of a firefight, which will usually get you plugged. Either way, fistfights are always fought one-on-one while the others wait their turn, like in a kung-fu movie. And while that makes sense in certain instances, it seems like an awfully counterproductive tactic when used, about a third of the way through the game, by a gang of would-be prison-shower rapists.
That just leaves the one constant in nearly every open-world game: the cops. Cops in the original Mafia game were an enormous pain in the ass; they'd pull you over for speeding or running red lights, and God help you if they actually saw you commit a crime. In Mafia II, meanwhile, they'll still try to pull you over for speeding (but not running red lights). But that's OK, because the cops themselves are kind of a joke, easy to outrun and even easier to outwit.
Above: "I bet I wouldn't be such a cop-killer if I gave you $600, now would I, Officer?"
Even if they manage to catch you, well, two things you'll learn from breaking the law in Mafia II are that all police officers are corrupt, and money fixes everything. Everything. Even if the police manage to "arrest" you, bribing them a few hundred on the spot will instantly set you free and clear your record. And if they decide they'd rather just shoot you on sight, as they will if you rob stores or commit murder, all you need to do is kill all the cops in your immediate vicinity (more won't usually be sent after you right away) and then steer clear of the rest long enough to change your clothes, at which point they won't recognize you at all anymore. They might still recognize whatever car you were driving, since vehicles have a separate "wanted" status, but hey, that's what Empire Bay's many illicit body shops are for.
Really, though, the focus here is less on action than it is on story – and Mafia II's story is relentlessly entertaining, filled with interesting characters and carefully laid plans that routinely go horribly wrong. Following the misadventures of one Vito Scaletta, a two-bit hood-turned-war hero-turned-mafioso, the game spins a blood-soaked 1950s crime yarn that sees Vito and his loutish buddy, Joe Barbaro, struggling to carve out a niche for themselves in the New York/San Francisco-inspired city of Empire Bay.
Vito starts the game in abject poverty, but gradually claws his way up to mediocrity before doing some time in prison. He gains and loses increasingly posh homes and possessions, kills a lot of people he shouldn't, and is ultimately forced to weigh loyalty to his family against loyalty to his other family.
What sets all this apart from most other Mob games is Vito's enduring bromance with Joe, a likable slob who speaks with a Jersey accent, busts out a lot of Italian slang and seems to genuinely care about Vito. Vito, for his part, is a typically earnest (if somewhat greedy and homicidal) everyman for players to project themselves onto, but Joe is flawed, goofy, sometimes tragic and (most importantly) indestructible, which makes him a much more interesting character to hang around with. It's hard not to get attached to him – or to any of the other charmingly devious rat-bastards who move in the circles Vito and Joe so desperately want access to.
Above: That includes Henry Tomasino, the gravel-voiced, on-again-off-again third member of the group
Couple all that with some amazing vocal performances, a ton of snappy dialogue and some expertly directed cutscenes, and you've got a genuinely heartfelt, interesting story to follow. Sure, it may borrow heavily from Goodfellas, The Godfather and even the original Mafia game, but that doesn't make it any less engaging.
One word of warning, though: Mafia dudes are generally portrayed as racist pricks, and that goes quadruple for Mafia dudes living in the '40s. It's actually kind of refreshing that Mafia II doesn't gloss this aspect over, but if you're the type to get easily upset over protagonists who casually sling around racial slurs, well, consider yourself warned. It's not a huge part of the game, but it's there.
At the center all this is what might be both Mafia II's biggest asset and its biggest liability: the city of Empire Bay itself. Over the last few years, we've heard a lot about the amount of effort that's gone into painstakingly recapturing the look and feel of the '40s and '50s, and that genuinely shows in everything from the car designs and fashions to the neon shop signs and the furniture, appliances and posters that decorate every building interior. Everything looks amazing – more so when you factor in the occasional rain and snow that cover the streets – and it's difficult to not be impressed.
Above: It's worth noting that while your friends can lean out of the car and shoot, you can't shoot while driving, ever
It's not limited to the sights, either. Empire Bay is also host to (just) three radio stations, which play a staggering selection of jazz, '50s rock, blues and classical music, along with original (and almost totally straight-faced) commercials and news reports that track your misdeeds. A word of warning, though: the radio stations, varied though their playlists might be, can get awfully damn repetitive, and the songs themselves are awfully damn catchy. So try to switch up what you listen to, or you might end up with a faintly racist song about Chinese food, sung by a band called The Gaylords (yes, really), stuck in your head for days at a time.
Ultimately, though, Empire Bay feels strangely lifeless, all careful detail and little spontaneity. The crowds are thin, the traffic is light and – most importantly – there's very little to actually do in Empire Bay. Apart from the missions mandated by the story, there aren't any side-tasks to pursue apart from stealing cars, robbing stores or scouring the city for collectibles. Oh sure, every once in a while you'll find a woman who needs her car fixed or some guy who needs a punch in the mouth, but that stuff's rare, and it's always a pre-planned part of whatever mission you're on. There's no real incentive to explore; nothing to spend money on but clothes, guns, car upgrades and bribes; and no reason to ferret out collectibles aside from seeing vintage Playboy centerfolds and earning an eventual Achievement or Trophy.
Above: Still, though – pretty
None of that stuff is particularly interesting or necessary, and it leaves us disappointed to find out that Empire Bay's impressive aesthetic achievement isn't much deeper than Grand Theft Auto III's version of Liberty City. It's like a photo come to life; it's very pretty and evocative of its era, but if you expect much more from it than that, you're going to be let down.
It also doesn't help that, while you'll occasionally see ordinary citizens walk up and engage each other in conversation, these chats always seem stiff and tacked on. It's also not uncommon for them to be entirely voiced by ubiquitous voice actor Nolan North. The illusion is cracked even further by weird design decisions, like characters who show up in cutscenes with speaking parts, and then turn out to be standard NPC models – which can be jarring if you're not prepared for it. Probably the most notable example is Joe's nameless, redheaded "girlfriend," who shows up in cutscenes…
… outside Joe's apartment, needing to be saved from some dumb greaser…
… and, frequently, on the street next to clones of herself.
Above: Not an unusual occurrence
It's important to note that, as disappointingly shallow as Empire Bay is as an open world, it likely won't affect your enjoyment of the story and action, which stand well enough on their own. So long as you think of Mafia II as a linear game that just happens to be set in a freely explorable landscape, it's still a pretty amazing experience.
Finally, there's that eternal question: which console has the better version? In spite of the recent revelation that the PS3 version of Mafia II actually looks inferior to its 360 counterpart, it's not always easy to spot the differences, as they're limited to details like blood pooling and cloth movement.
Above: Huh. That's... kind of a big deal, actually
If that bothers you, and you've got the option to do so, you should get the 360 version. But if you don't, then you should know that aside from the details, the versions look more or less identical. See for yourself – here's a 360 screen, followed by a PS3 screen:
Above: Can you tell which is which? What if we hadn't told you?
Of course, that's just graphics. While the 360 version looks a bit sharper, it also has some annoying glitches – things like minor graphical hiccups and loading freezes when switching radio stations at high speeds – that we didn't see in the PS3 version. These appeared on the retail version of the game, and may or may not be fixed by a patch, but they're a minor annoyance and didn't lead to any serious problems with the game.
Also, the PS3 version comes with a download code for an exclusive add-on story, Betrayal of Jimmy, in which you'll play as a hard-nosed mercenary enforcer in a points-driven, mission-based version of Mafia II that's reminiscent of the first two Grand Theft Auto games. It's not a significant-enough add-on to affect the score, but it's fun to dive into after you've finished the (somewhat unreplayable) story mode, and it gives the PS3 version extra weight. It might have made Mafia II a more complete game if its missions had simply been an optional part of the game world, but it's still hard to argue with getting an add-on adventure for free.
Above: Jimmy isn't a more compelling protagonist than Vito, but he is considerably more badass
Grand Theft Auto IV? No. Both games are about on par when it comes to writing and action, but everything about GTA IV is ultimately more involving: Niko is a more interesting lead than Vito, GTA IV's secondary characters have more substance, and Liberty City feels more like a living, breathing world than Empire Bay's giant dollhouse. Mafia II has a lot to offer GTA fans, but don't expect it to unseat the king of car crime anytime soon.
The Godfather: The Game? Yes. They're very similar, both thematically and from a gameplay standpoint, and Godfather has more side stuff to do – but its "more" is a long trudge of repetitive extortions and robberies. And its story, while good, has the disadvantage of being essentially fan fiction based on an existing work, while Mafia II's is original (its obvious debts to Goodfellas and other Mob movies notwithstanding). In the end, though, this comes down to the cities: Godfather's version of New York was always a big, gray façade, while Empire Bay at least looks and feels a little more like a real place, shallow though it may be.
Red Dead Redemption? No. Comparing Red Dead with Mafia II might seem like apples and oranges – or horses and cars – but it's hard not to hold up a game like Mafia II next to the wildly successful open-world game that released just a few months prior. Besides, both games try to re-create a point in history, and they both pull it off beautifully – but, again, Red Dead's world feels much more alive than Mafia II's, with lots more going on and lots more to do. Also, its visuals, action and characters all beat the pants off Mafia II. Again, that doesn't mean Red Dead fans won't adore Mafia II, but one's clearly better than the other.
While its story and action are fantastic, Mafia II is an open-world game with an "open world" that never becomes anything more than an elaborate backdrop for the story. It's a lot of fun while it lasts, but don't expect to be playing this months from now.
|Available Platforms:
|PC, Xbox 360, PS3
|Published by:
|2K Games
|Developed by:
|2K Czech
|ESRB Rating:
Mature: Blood, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Use of Drugs, Use of Alcohol
|PEGI Rating:
Ricochet3438 - September 7, 2010 12:28 a.m.
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Release Date: 2008 |
Album Rating: 4.0Short review for a short album. criticism is welcome and appreciated.
Bout time ;], pos
'The Lie' has a beat that prefers to ensnare the listener and force a sway; during which, the vocals pepper with a sense of cynicism. It retains an expected pattern, but never allows its dejection to persist in a negative way. It is certainly a more relaxed sadness than venomously spiteful.
excellent descriptions, pos
Album Rating: 4.0thanks guys, means a lot
what are the approximate track lengths?
Album Rating: 4.0almost five minutes a piece. Although, i preferred to avoid talking about the remix, just because i get that this is basically a tbt. If the description of the first song strikes your fancy, then you'll probably dig the remix too.
or not. whatever, lol.
Recommended by Reviewer
Pendulum Hold Your Colour
Digging: Theo Parrish - American Intelligence
Album Rating: 4.0i had a similar cathartic dance experience with that. yeah, it's dnb and definitely not dubstep. but i felt like if people enjoyed this, they may enjoy that too.
or they'll hear it, understand its differences, and hate it. either way, i just like zomby.
it's kind of weird to think of The Lie as club music.
I'm just surprised that you were able to reach any kind of catharsis with Pendulum
Album Rating: 4.0well you know me, but you should also probably know that you're my only real source for this music. i suck at the internet, obviously.
my friend mixed them with various other artists at a pseudo-rave held at my old uni, for someone like me (just starting out) the party was great. i wanna start learning how to do my own mixing, so yeah i'm definitely new to the scene or whatever.
will listen
Enjoyed the reiview, pos.
Album Rating: 4.0thanks for reading, folks.
Bands: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

subset: commoncrawl


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Comics and Digital Culture in the Emerald City
Column by Rob Salkowitz
Published: 03/24/2014 04:09pm
This Friday is the start of the Emerald City Comic Convention (ECCC) in Seattle, now entering its twelfth year. The show is sold out in advance for the first time and is expecting upwards of 65,000 people, making it the first really big comics show of the season and a prime destination for the west coast fan and pro community.
It's also my hometown show, one I've attended each year from the first (in the modest surroundings of the Qwest Field Plaza) to the most recent, when a year-to-year attendance jump of more than 10,000 exposed some noticeable growing pains. This year, ECCC has maxed out its venue, the two-block, four-story Washington State Convention Center, increased the size of the exhibit hall, and added new programming tracks, celebrity appearances and multimedia events, although organizers insist it remains a comics show at its core.
Diverse Demographics. Even before ECCC became a full-fledged member of the major league con circuit in North America, it was always an interesting regional show. Attendance at the Con over the years has always reflected a broad demographic mix, with a strong element of techies, hipsters, steampunks, makers and other "nerd-adjacent" subcultures intermingling with traditional comic, gamer, manga/anime and cosplay types long before this became the norm at bigger cons.
It's also a crowd open to less commercial, non-mainstream work, as opposed to the superhero-first audience you'd get at other comic-centric events of this scale. Small presses and independent creators are well represented on the show floor and the program schedule, as befits a convention staged on the home turf of Fantagraphics. Portland, another hotspot of comics creativity (must be all the rain...) sends a large delegation up I-5 for the weekend, led by Dark Horse and its full slate of events, creator appearances and programming.
The Digital Show. Seattle is also a center of the high tech industry, home to Microsoft, Amazon, Nintendo and a burgeoning community of feisty startups. Besides the institutional interest from those companies, the cubicle farms of South Lake Union and Redmond are occupied by well-paid, well-connected pop culture fans who line up in their tens of thousands for a first-tier con experience in their own back yard.
The programming schedule is packed with events appealing to tech-oriented fans, including lots of panels about digital comics, games, apps and digital illustration and f/x design. Amazon is debuting its Jet City imprint here, for example. Forward-looking companies are increasingly seeing ECCC as the "digital show" in the same way that San Diego is the Hollywood show and New York is the publishing show.
Comics and digital culture. One part of that trend is a new program track called "Comics and Digital Culture" that I've developed with ECCC in conjunction with the University of Washington Communication Leadership (CommLead) program. The goal of the series is to put the spotlight on some of the most interesting trends and people extending comics as both an art and a business in the digital realm.
This new program will depart from the traditional con panel format and feature the speakers giving 20-25 minute solo presentations in the format of TED Talks, followed by Q&A. There are four sessions running Saturday afternoon 1-5pm.
It's also an experiment for the UW CommLead program, a professional, graduate-level department that is interested in comics for their role in the evolution of communications, storytelling and media, rather than the traditional academic focus on their literary, artistic, historical or sociological qualities.
Ted, Not TED. OK, it sounds a little pretentious, but the Comics and Digital Culture series is meant to appeal to fans and creators as well as some of those "nerd-adjacent" audiences who deal with media and communications issues for a living. The lineup reflects a combination of business and creative innovators with some interesting stories to tell, including:
The 2014 con season kicks off on Friday, and hopefully will kick Peak Geek up another notch. If you're there, come say "hi," Saturday afternoon, room 204!
Rob Salkowitz (@robsalk) is author of Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture and is curating a speaker series on "Comics and Digital Culture" at Emerald City Comic-Con in March.
The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.
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'Fire and Ice'The remake of Fire and Ice by Robert Rodriguez is going to Sony.
|Full Story
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|2. Hobbit
|7. Guardians of the Galaxy
|3. Magic: The Gathering
|8. Batman
|4. Pokemon
|9. Yu-GI-Oh!
|5. Avengers
|10. Marvel Dice Masters


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Last weekend I visited my parents & pretty much the first thing my dad said to me upon entering the house was to check out his ipad. He had been researching vintage perfume bottles & one of them was a rare Guerlain Champs Elysees perfume.
Originally released in 1904 to celebrate the opening of the Guerlain store on the Champs Elysees, the fragrance was again released in 1995 where only 1300 bottles were made.
The 1995 edition was housed in an elaborate red leather & wood box designed by Hermes, with the bottle an exact copy of the original Baccarat crystal perfume bottle which itself is exquisite & incredibly rare.
What is even more incredible is the fact that my dad owns one & very kindly let me photograph it for my blog!
The beautiful Hermes designed leather & wood presentation box:
The 60ml Baccarat crystal bottle is turtle shape in design which was said to reflect the slowness of the Guerlain Champs Elysees store build:
The perfume is in excellent condition, still sealed & never been open. The amazing thing is that my dad bought it about 6 years ago from a car boot sale together with a bottle of Chanel No5 for £10 *jawdrop*
The current value price of this is way over £1000 such is it's rarity. As tempting as it is to sniff this fragrance I think it's safe to say we won't be opening it any time soon!
Will be popping up another post on the rest of my parents vintage fragrance collection very soon but thought this one deserved it's very own post.
Thanks dad for letting me photograph it! x


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Price: $315.00
Product ID : 20041
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The ImmunoStar VMAT1 antiserum was quality control tested using standard immunohistochemical methods in rat adrenal medulla using biotin/avidin-HRP techniques; the antiserum shows no reactivity in rat CNS.
Specificity of the antiserum was demonstrated by soluble pre-adsorption and Western blot. Tissue staining is completely eliminated by pretreatment of the diluted antibody with an excess of rat VMAT1 peptide residues 502-521.
Western blot analysis of immunoprecipitated rat adrenal homogenates demonstrates a dense immunoreactive band of approximately 55 kD and a minor band of approximately 75 kD.
Host: Rabbit
Quantity / Volume: 100 µL
State: Lyophilized Whole Serum
Species Reactivity: Rat
Availability: In Stock
Alternate Names: Chromaffin granule amine transporter; Solute carrier family 18 member 1; VAT1; VMAT-1; Vesicular amine transporter 1; Slc18a1. Cgat, Vmat1,Vmat-1; solute carrier family 18 (vesicular monoamine), member 1. Slc18a1,25693
Gene Symbol / ID, Accession #: Slc18a1,25693
Download Product Spec. Sheet: Vesicular Monoamine Transporter 1 Antibody
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Elisa Gabbert's blog
DIY? No Can Do: More Companies Turn to Software for Help with PPC
There was a time when being a PPC manager necessarily entailed being an Excel ninja as well. Not a fan of spreadsheets? Then step away from the PPC account, my friend!In 2001, however, a tipping point occurred – the majority of companies no longer managed their PPC accounts using Excel. And the trend continues in that direction.
According to SEMPO's recent State of Search report, the number of companies who manage their PPC campaigns DIY-style using free tools like those provided by search engines, Excel, or "a simple database" fell from nearly half (49%) in 2001 to just 38% in 2012. That's a big drop! And a much bigger drop than the change from 2010 to 2011 (53% to 49%).Here's the survey data from SEMPO (the exact question was "Do you or your primary search engine marketing ... > Read more
3 More (Yes, More!) Ways to Save Money on PPC
When Did Google Give Up on the Long Tail?
Over the past year I've noticed that the Google results for long-tail queries have really started to suck. It often seems like Google just stops paying attention if I type more than three words. Case in point: I just searched "the french exit cilantro" and Google basically completely ignored the last word of my query:Spectacular fail: NOT ONE result on the first page contains the word "cilantro.
" (They're also all from my blog; so much for domain diversity.) I was looking for a specific post on my blog about cilantro, and was trying to save time by Googling directly to it rather than going to my blog first and performing a search there. This used to work! Even on the second page, I didn't start seeing results that included the word "cilantro" until halfway down the page, an... > Read more
25 Fast Facts About Bing Ads
In honor of this week's change in branding from adCenter to Bing Ads, and as a counterpart to 25 Fast Facts About Google AdWords, here are 25 facts and figures about Bing Ads, Microsoft's PPC advertising platform:With a single Bing ad buy, you can reach 162 million unique searchers using Microsoft and Yahoo sites (including Yahoo Search, Bing, and partners), which account for 30% of total search engine share and over 6 billion searches a month.
(comScore Core Search, January 2012)From June 2011 to June 2012, Bing stole 5% of Google's search share. (Experian Hitwise)Bids on Bing tend to be lower, and the competition for keywords is lower. (Hubspot)Local, travel, shopping and health related searches account for 30-40% of total search queries. Sessions in these four areas on Bing are of... > Read more
Organic vs. Paid Clicks: These Are Not the Clicks You're Looking For
A while back we published a post called "Think nobody clicks on Google ads? Think again!" This post was based on original research revealing that roughly two-thirds of clicks for search queries with high commercial intent go to sponsored results.Recently, a new, related report has been making the rounds.
This study, carried out by GroupM UK and Nielsen, reports that 94% of total search engine clicks go to organic results, with just 6% of click share left for paid search ads. This seems to contradict our results – one cheeky lad tweeted the link directly to us – but does it?In the strictest sense – just, you know, in terms of facts – the answer is no. The GroupM study was looking at overall click distribution in the UK over a one-month period, totaling 1.4 billion search q... > Read more
Tricks to Get the Click: 10 Tips for Writing Better PPC Text Ads [New Guide]
Our latest white paper, co-authored with the good folks at Hanapin Marketing, is now available for download! Below is an excerpt from the guide. Click here to download the full text of this new, free guide.Tricks to Get the Click: 10 Tips for Writing Better PPC Text AdsIf you want to sell products or generate leads online, a user-friendly, conversion-optimized website is Step 1.
But when it comes to search engine marketing, it doesn't matter how beautiful your website is if people never get there.Pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements placed in search engine results and on other relevant sites can be an extremely effective means of driving qualified traffic to your site – one that more than pays for itself, if you're doing it right.Even though you have to pay for each click on one of you... > Read more
Content Marketing Magic: Aligning Keyword & Content Types with Business Goals
Lately it seems like content marketing is the new SEO. It's become a bit of a buzzword. But when you slap a trendy label on something, it's easy to start overthinking it. Ten years ago, everyone with a website was producing content of one kind or another. Then we started worrying about SEO – how to make that content more visible and available to search engine visitors.
Now that "content marketing" is the word of the day, people are stressing about what "content" means and how they can "create great content."But the truth is, for most businesses, your goals haven't really changed. You're still just trying to get people to your website to do whatever it is you want them to do – to buy your widgets, as it were. Advertising is one way to accomplish that; content marketi... > Read more
Google Knowledge Graph Gets Fancy with Slider Results at Top of Page
Yesterday, blanking on the name of the movie Magnolia, I googled the phrase "tom cruise movies," and saw a really surprising result (click the image to enlarge): Knowledge Graph on Steroids!!! This huge, sliding row of movie posters at the top of the page – very reminiscent of Netflix's browsing design – is beyond eye-catching; it's practically all I can see.
When you click on one of the movie posters, you're directed to a new SERP, as though you searched for the name of that movie: Larry saw something similar this week on his mobile phone while doing a tourism-related search: What's Going on Here?You haven't forgotten my big conspiracy theory about the Google Knowledge Graph, have you? I suspect that Google is trying to train users to pay... > Read more
The Very Best of WordStream: August's Greatest Hits
I think it's quite amusing that Kajagoogoo has an album called "The Very Best of Kajagoogoo" – I mean, can anyone name more than one song by Kajagoogoo? I think this is the one:Well this blog is no one-hit wonder! Here's our very best of the month, the top 10 posts that got you reading and talking:Google SERP Dumps 5.
5% of Organic First Page Listings – Google recently slashed the number of first-page results for some queries from 10 to 7 (and 30% reduction!). Larry examines the SEO implications.Why SEO's (Sometimes) Suck at PPC Marketing – Larry puts on his fighting gloves and names some important differences in the mindset required to succeed at organic vs. paid search.The Long-Term Value of SEO: Does SEO Value Last Forever? – Larry (who, you might have noticed, was on a b... > Read more
Why Are Popular Keywords So Hard to Rank for with a New Website?
While digging through our analytics for question keywords (as outlined in "3 Ways to Find Questions to Answer in Your Content"), I found the following question: Why are popular keywords so hard to rank for with a new website? It's a good question, although the longer you work in search marketing, the more obvious the answer becomes.
New websites have difficulty ranking for popular, high-volume keywords for two primary reasons:New websites don't have much site authority yet. The amount of on-page optimization you do when targeting a specific keyword is only half the battle. The Google algorithm takes site or domain authority into account when assigning rankings. Your site's authority depends on factors like age of domain (hence, new websites necessarily have less authority) a... > Read more
Case Study: The Curious Case of Toolbar PageRank
Or, Why Does My Personal Blog Have the Same PageRank as a Search Marketing Site with a Huge SEO Budget?A couple of weeks ago, Google rolled out a new update to Toolbar PageRank. Victor Pan, our resident SEO "ninja," dropped me and Larry a note, letting us know the WordStream site is holding steady at 5.
Out of curiosity, I checked the PageRank on my own blog. It was also a 5. Amused, I let them know, and Larry shot back, "You should be running our SEO meetings!"In case you don't find this as surprising as we do, let me tell you a little more about these two sites:WordStream.com: We're a venture-backed search marketing company that has been around for about five years. We primarily sell PPC management software, but we also offer both free and paid keyword research tools as well ... > Read more
What Is Good SEO? The Debate Continues
Larry stirred up quite a controversy last week with two posts that made some bold claims. First, he said that SEOs suck at PPC because they don't approach it with the right mindset. (Later, he amended the post to say that SEOs sometimes suck at PPC – he also told me he was mainly thinking about himself.
) Then he said that the idea that SEO has more long-term value than PPC is a myth.This didn't sit too well with some of our readers (many of whom are advocates for and practitioners of SEO – as, frankly, we have always been in the past). We had some vehement disagreement in the comments from people who thought Larry was over-generalizing or conflating "SEO" with webspam and unsustainable black-hat tactics. For example, Matt Bennett said, "you've taken your own experiences... > Read more
25 Fast Facts About AdWords
Google was launched in 2000, with pricing based on a flat CPM (cost per impression model). It was relaunched under an auction model in 2002. (Search Engine History)An 18-year-old college dropout named Scott Banister is credited with the brilliant, multi-billion-dollar idea of pay-for-placement search listings, an idea later brought to fruition by Bill Gross at IdeaLab.
(TechCrunch)About 97% of Google's total revenues come from advertising. (Google Investor Relations)Businesses make an average of $2 in revenue for every $1 they spend on AdWords. (Google Economic Impact Report)As of Spring 2011, Google had over 1.2 million businesses advertising on its search network. (AdGooRoo via Perry Marshall)The average click-through rate for an ad in the first position is 7.94%. (AccuraCast)&nb... > Read more
Just What I Always Wanted, Gmail in My Google Results … Wait, What?
How do you feel about private data in public spaces? Search Plus Your World was disturbing enough. If I do a Google image search for "ice cream," it's because I want some generic pictures of ice cream. I don't want to find a picture of myself eating ice cream. I especially don't want to find a picture of myself eating ice cream naked.
(I don't have any nude photos in my Picasa account, that I know of, but it's possible right?) And I especially don't want a friend who is using my computer to find a picture of me eating ice cream naked. And if I'm borrowing a friend's computer, I don't want to find their naked pictures either! (I don't know any male models.)And now Google has officially gone completely crazy. Yesterday they announced that search results will soon inco... > Read more
Zuckerberg, You've Got Egg on Your Face(book)
Dalton Caldwell Gives Mark Zuckerberg the BusinessI mentioned the App.net project – Dalton Caldwell's vision of an ad-free Twitter platform – last week. Now Caldwell is making headlines for an open letter that he posted on his blog, called "Dear Mark Zuckerberg," in which he recounts a meeting he had earlier this summer with several top Facebook executives.
As Caldwell describes it, he was hoping the outcome of the meeting would be "executive-level support for [his] impending product launch." Instead, those executives informed him that the product he was developing sounded like a competitor to Facebook App Center. As you can guess, they didn't like that. Dalton writes:Your executives explained to me that they would hate to have to compete with the "interesting product" I... > Read more
Week in Review: Link Warnings, Ad-Free Twitter & More
Warning! Don't do something or something might happen, maybe?Google's Link Warnings Run AmokOn July 19, like many other sites, we received a warning email from Google Webmaster Tools that Google had detected potentially harmful, unnatural links pointing to our site. The sequence of emotions went something like this: panic, fear, confusion, relief, irritation, then back to confusion.
The "relief" phase came when we realized the warnings went out to a huge number of sites – including SEOmoz, which I think of as squeaky-clean and unimpeachable. According to Ruth Barr, SEOmoz does "virtually nothing in the way of active link solicitation." In other words, they have a huge and active community and they focus on churning out good content daily, so, as Ruth says, the links build ... > Read more
Marissa Explains It All … to Yahoo? Marissa Mayer Leaves Google for Yahoo
You can gauge the unexpectedness of an event by the number of tweets announcing the news that start with "Wow." And Monday, my tweetstream was full of wow's, because the news broke that Marissa Mayer – formerly a VP at Google and one of the company's most public faces – was leaving to take the helm at Yahoo as CEO.
This is shocking because:1. Who would choose Yahoo over Google?! Yahoo seems to exist solely to serve as the butt of tech jokes.2. OMG, Marissa Mayer is pregnant!!!Let's take the second shocker first: Does it matter that Mayer is pregnant? Can a pregnant woman run a company? I'll answer this question with a little analogy. My brother and I went to the same college (Rice University, go Owls!), and we used to play a lot of ping-pong. Now, I'm pretty damn good at ... > Read more
Save $200 on MarketingProfs University (MPU) Search Marketing School: SEO
Howdy, sports fans! Thanks to the good people at MarketingProfs, we have a special offer for our readers to save $200 on an upcoming MarketingProfs University (MPU) online training course: Search Marketing School: SEO. This training course features classes on keyword research, content strategy, link building, social media, SEO metrics and more, with expert speakers including Vanessa Fox, Andrew Hanelly, Jill Whalen, Ian Lurie, John Doherty, Ruth Barr, and yours truly.
Read on for more details on this offer.About MarketingProfs UniversityMPU provides affordable, comprehensive online training in the interrelated disciplines that make up your marketing mix.With each course you'll get 10-17 hours of instruction in what you need to plan, build, and measure successful marketing programs. Plus yo... > Read more
5 Reasons to Diversify Your Search Strategy with PPC Advertising
Yesterday we published the results of a study showing how sponsored advertisements on Google (PPC ads) are taking over territory previously reserved for organic listings, AKA "free clicks." This is both good news and bad news for marketers. On the plus side, Google continues to roll out more and better types of search advertising to help marketers target their customers.
On the negative side, you (obviously) have to pay for those clicks.But the fact is, organic clicks aren't really "free" either – gone are the days when it was relatively easy to rank on the first page in Google for your target keywords. Given the increasing costs and complications involved with SEO, it's important to diversify your marketing channels. You can't rely on organic search alone for traffic and l... > Read more
Perry Marshall on the AdWords Stupidity Tax & Why You Should Never Let a Google Rep Near Your Account
Perry Marshall is one of our favorite people in PPC. We've partnered with him on a few webinars, and we love that he doesn't just parrot back conventional wisdom at you. He shares real insight into web marketing strategy and has a knack for analogies that hit home. He recently sent me the new edition of his popular AdWords guide, The Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords, and spoke with me about some of the great advice you can find inside.
About Perry: Entrepreneur Magazine calls him "the #1 author and world's most-quoted consultant on Google Advertising … He has helped over 100,000 advertisers save literally billions of dollars in AdWords stupidity tax." His Chicago company, Perry S. Marshall & Associates, consults both online and brick-and-mortar companies on generating sales ... > Read more
Conspiracy Theory: Google Knowledge Graph Trains Us to 'See' the Right Side of the SERP
Google recently announced the release of the Knowledge Graph, a new feature designed to "help you discover new information quickly and easily" by providing informative answers to informational queries directly in the SERP. In other words, for search queries that are typically answered by a high-ranking, ever-present Wikipedia page, some of that top-level information can now be found on the results page itself, so you don't necessarily have to click through to another site.
For example, if you google "Mae West," you see some basic information (date of birth and death, height, name of spouse, and some of her more well-known movies, as well as related figures) to the right of the organic search results (click to enlarge):Yesterday, I was talking to Larry about different types of sea... > Read more
The 20-Minute PPC Work Week: Weekly Checklist [Download]
We've evaluated thousands of PPC accounts with the AdWords Performance Grader, adding up to almost $1 billion in total PPC spend. Looking at this huge amount of data in aggregate, one of the most salient trends has to do with account activity. Namely, we've noticed a strong correlation between regular activity and relative success.
That is to say, the advertisers that get the highest scores (because they're beating everyone else in terms of key metrics like Quality Score, click-through rate, and impression share) usually spend the most time in their accounts.Disturbingly, about 1 in 5 advertisers who used the Grader haven't even logged into their AdWords account in the past 30 days. We get it – we're busy too! – but if you don't actually work on your account on a regular basis, your RO... > Read more
4 Ways to Celebrate Your Independence in the Workplace
Happy belated Independence Day, WordStream fans! With the 4th falling on a Wednesday, it feels like we had a Saturday right in the middle of the week – but no following Sunday to help us recover. Oof!When I reluctantly dragged myself back to work yesterday, I saw a note from my coworker Adam, who said he was "declaring independence from old emails," archiving all messages older than two weeks.
That note – and Wednesday's patriotic festivities – inspired me to think of more ways to assert your independence in the office.1. Declare Email BankruptcyDeclaring "bankruptcy" for your email means admitting that you're never going to be able to answer all those old messages. Archive them, delete them, unflag, mark all as read – do whatever you have to do, but don't allow... > Read more
WordStream's Top 10 of the Month
Check out our top 10 greatest hits from June!Everything You Want to Know About Quality Score & Landing Pages – This FAQ, consisting of questions we received during a recent webinar, is packed with info on AdWords Quality Score and how your landing pages affect it.RIP SEO Footer Links – Matt Cutts recently announced that boilerplate, sitewide links don't count for much if anything.
Has your link strategy changed?AdWords Live Chat Ad Extension Now In Beta – Google appears to be testing a new "Live Chat" extension that allows people to click a button to initiate a live chat directly from a PPC ad.3 Things I've Learned from Founding a Software Start-Up – Larry talks about his experience with founding, bootstrapping, and securing funding for a software company that is now al... > Read more
I Love Twitter's New Weekly Email and You Should Too
Twitter, God love them, tends to be a little slow on the uptake as far as social networks go. It's been around for about six years, but Twitter has been notoriously slow about adding new features and improving the functionality of its website. For example, it took years for the company to build in a "retweet" button (and the way they built it initially was not well received); it acquired TweetDeck in May 2011, but has kept TweetDeck as a separate application with its own brand rather than integrating those awesome features into Twitter itself.
About a month ago, Twitter sent out an email to users announcing some updates and policy changes. First among those changes: "A new weekly email that delivers the most interesting news and items you might have missed from the people ... > Read more
Duh: Study Reveals Your Facebook Fans Like You More Than Random People
The New York Times just published an Associated Press snippet under the extremely misleading headline "ComScore Study Says Facebook Ads Effective."Larry passed me the link, and we both wondered briefly if Facebook had commissioned a study to "prove" that their ads are in fact effective (since our recent research suggests that Facebook ads are not effective compared to other online display ad networks).
However, if you read the story, it doesn't even appear to be about ads (emphases mine):The report released Tuesday found that people who were fans of Starbucks and Target, or friends of those fans, were more likely to make a purchase than a control group that were not fans.The comScore study comes a day after the research firm said that the number of unique visitors to Facebook's websit... > Read more
What Would an AdWords Consultant Do? AdWords Experts Share Their Stories, Part 16
Matt Cutts: 'Don't Write the Epitaph for Links Just Yet'
Every year at SMX Advanced, Matt Cutts does a "You & A" question-and-answer session with Danny Sullivan. Matt McGee's write-up of this year's interview is full of juicy tidbits and interesting insight into Google's inner workings – but it's worth reminding ourselves that part of Cutts' job is PR.
When a company goes around saying "We value transparency, we value transparency!" all the time, you have to wonder how transparent they're being – and Google's algorithms for organic search rankings and Quality Score are still very cryptic.But let's see what we can take away from his comments anyway, shall we?Links Still Matter – But Not Site-Wide Links, SuckersDanny asked, "Do links still work, or are social signals gonna replace them?" Cutts responded:Dougla... > Read more
Bing's Sponsored Results for 'Keyword' Are Out of Control
This is pretty funny – do a search for "keyword" in Bing and here's an example of the ads that get served:In other words, a seemingly random assortment of merchants – Bloomingdales, BMW of Sudbury, ankylosing spondylitis treatments, whip cream chargers?? Only one of the sponsored results has anything to do with keywords, the one on the bottom for an "SEO Site Analyzer" (notice, though, that the term "keyword" doesn't even appear in the ad).
What's going on here? My coworker Sergey figured it out – marketers or business owners are either uploading a spreadsheet or cutting and pasting from a document that uses "Keyword" as a heading. For example, Bloomingdales might have a keyword list that looks something like this:KeywordKate SpadeDKNYMichael KorsAnd the heading ... > Read more
Everything You Want to Know About Quality Score & Landing Pages
We recently ran a joint webinar with landing page specialists Unbounce called "How to Use Killer Landing Pages to Get Better PPC Results" (you can view the slides from that webinar here). We didn't have time to answer all the great follow-up questions from attendees, so we're answering them here on the blog.
Special thanks to Tom Demers of Measured SEM for his help with answering these questions.What would you consider to be the weighting of Ad CTR vs. Landing Page relevancy as it relates to Quality Score? If you have a KW with low quality score should the first area of focus be Ad Copy testing or landing page development?The relevance of your ad is more important on balance than your landing page. It's the first thing a Google user sees, assuming your ad qualifies to display in ... > Read more


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Understand my angle, I'm safety first. Don't make me act like the safety don't work
ahhhhhhh what a day. i woke up, took a shower, ate and then i re-did my door. lol i kept some of the stuff up there, but also took stuff down and replaced it. it looks hott.so thennn my aunts uncles and cousins and gramma and ralph came over. i stayed outside with them for a while. then josh came over at like 5:30ish...and we got to chill...i gave him his present. but i couldnt find the card. i guess i lost it. he liked the present. he showed me a pic of what he got me. it was hott. umm so me and josh chilled, he told me he saw marcus at the movies. i got jelous haha. he always sees him. umm then we played some bball and there was like a massive wasps nest in the hoop lol. there were madd amounts of wasps. umm then we went back upstairs and chilled online a lil more. then we came downstairs to watch a movie but there were other people down there so we went outside by the pool and talked. umm then we ate. then dani finalllly got here :-D. we chillllllllllllled downstairs and watched love and basketball. when i turned it on the movie wasn't at the begining. stupid ben didn't make sure it was at the begnining, he left it at the credits...how rude! lol but i forgive him. dani kept fast forwarding it tho. come on now who does that? u CANNOT fast forward love and basketball. JESUS DANI! haha so yea her and josh kept fighting over the remote. it was cute lol. then we had some cake. or i did...and now dani regrets that she didnt lol. and josh doesnt like carvel cake, he only likes "box cake" haha good times. then wen chilled some more downstairs untill it was time for joshua to leave. then he left. then dani left like 10 mins later. i think im goin 2 the movies with kenny and others tomorrow. possibly dani and josh and his friend dan too. i think nicole is coming to, i really don't know lol. oh and i gotta call courtney. ok so im out for now...peace...1!!
(Reply to this) (Thread)


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Why join the UAB Public Administration program?
What are the strengths of the Public Administration program?
Careers in Public Administration
Living in Birmingham
Stephanie BrosiusStephanie's research is studying the role of the Schwann cell growth factor neuregulin-1 and its receptors in the pathogenesis of malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors
Joanna WilsonJoanna 's research is an exploration of the ways that attitudes towards nature and geographically determined identity can be discerned through art and visual culture.
Kurt ZimmermanKurt's research looks at the effects of the ER stress response protein calreticulin on progression of fibrotic and fibroproliferative diseases.
Archived Student Spotlights


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Greetings Honors student,
Thanks for visiting the National Collegiate Honors Council Conference information site. The 2014 conference, Thrill of the Climb, will be held November 5-9 in Sheraton, Denver. Berry Honors students are invited to make poster presentations. All expenses for attending the conference will be covered
by the college.
Here is a link to general information about the conference.
Information about proposals and the link for submitting them may be accessed here.
I hope you will consider submitting a proposal for next year's poster session. Any course you've taken and any facet of that course can be used as subject matter for a poster-presentation proposal. Sample proposals by our Honors students are here for you to review. Here are sample proposals from 2009.


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I can't wait for the next time one of my UPROXX overlords calls me — I'm just going to yell, "Pizza House!" and then hang up the phone. It'll be glorious. Thanks for the idea, Peggy!
With that said, here are a few notes I made during last night's Mad Men about characters, scenes, etc. I found interesting for one reason or another.
- "Look, I already have life insurance. It came with my junior partnership. It's six times my annual salary and after two years it covers suicide." — Pete Campbell
A few weeks back, in one of these here Monday Mad Men discussion posts, I laid out a theory I'd been chewing on about Pete Campbell ultimately committing suicide. While Pete's been sort of in the background in the episodes that have come since then, last night he was back as a major storyline player and once again there were clues pointing to Pete drifting into a mental spiral ending in suicide. Hell, as I noted in the quote above, he even cryptically mentions suicide when talking to that goofy life insurance salesman whose wife he later boned. Obviously, he needs a solid triggering mechanism to push him over the edge — maybe this frustrated, horny housewife's unwillingness to enter into an affair with him will be the thing to motivate Pete to off himself?
So how long has it been since Pete was made a partner?
- "Since when did music become so important?"– Don Draper
- Another reason for me to love Don: he and I both don't "get" the Beatles.
- Speaking of Don, let's imagine what was going through his head immediately after almost falling down an elevator shaft, shall we?: "Oh sh*t. That's an open elevator shaft. I could have stepped in and F*CKING DIED! What should I do? Should I tell someone to call maintenance while I stand here in the meantime to guard the entrance and make sure no one tries to use this elevator? Should I put a note up to warn my co-workers so that one of them doesn't plummet to their death? Nah, f*ck it, I think I'll just go back to my office and pour myself a drink."
-Mr. Belding, Head of Desserts. I almost stood up and cheered when he entered that Cool Whip scene.
- Okay, could it be any more obvious that Matt Weiner truly loathes January Jones? I mean, she's been a presence in one episode all season. We haven't seen her for weeks. Hell, Betty Draper's bloated gasbag of a mother-in-law has had more screentime than she has. And let's not forget that when she did make an appearance she was FAT, FAT, FAT! I can actually smell the contempt Weiner has for Jones.
- Indiewire noticed something interesting in last night's episode: In an episode from season two, Betty wakes Don in the middle of the night to confront him about his lies — a conversation that leads to the end of their marriage. In last night's episode, Megan wakes him in the middle of the night to confess her own lies. Will the conversation trigger the same fate for Don and Megan? Regardless, Don has come full circle with the women in his life in regards to lying.
- "Second wives…it's like they have a playbook." Joan Holloway
- It cost $250,000 for Mad Men to play that Beatles song at the end of the episode. That sh*t cray.
- And finally, here's a random pic of Jon Hamm on a red carpet with one of the LMFAO dude, just because…
(GIFs via Chet Manley)


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Four Companies Demo New Marketing Technology at Daily Deal Summit
All the tech world loves a demo, so we couldn't leave yesterday's Daily Deal Summit without catching the Tech Showcase. Four CEOs–slowly losing their audience to lunch–were each assigned eight minutes to sell us on new solutions. Billed as having the potential to "dramatically improve" attendees' businesses, how did they stack up? Read More


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A person who is, sophisticated, extremely intelligent and exceedingly well-endowed. A person known as Bert is often the most respected or adored member of any group of people. To be called Bert is the utmost sign of respect: it signifies that the person being referred to has the ability to please and impress others on every possible level.
A woman sees a distinguished, attractive man at a party and says, "wow that guy is such a Bert"
af Kate Roberts 12. marts 2008
The most amazing boy you'll ever meet. Usually cute and not afraid to reveal his naughty side ;)
damn, berts a cutie. I'd hit that
af Priscaaay 24. november 2008
verb: to flail, squee, generally get excited by anything adam lambert does, wears, sings, is around.
omg adam lambert is at the party!" "time to bert!
af glitterlife 12. april 2011
Ernie's homosexual lover.
I mean, come on, BERT and ERNIE have been living together since 1969. Something is up.
af SuperSonicX 18. september 2005
A dialectal term for cigarette. Popular in North Lancashire and South Cumbria - may also have found its way to South Wales and parts of Manchester. Derived from the popular brand Lambert & Butler.
Winston: How many Berts can you smoke in twenty minutes?
Royston: At least twenty Berts, Marra.
Royston: At least twenty Berts, Marra.
af Bert420 10. maj 2012
A random dude who remains nameless to you, usually at a party or other gathering.
Yo Bert, is that your half-empty beer?
af foozebox 2. august 2005
(n) a vagina that posseses a foul, or "stanky," odor
Everyone on the elevator could smell the woman's bert.
af TheSandMannn 12. oktober 2011


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Home IL Properties IN Properties MO Properties Meet Our Agents Email Our Office Updates Via Email SOLD! Like Us on Facebook.
|Listing 1444L
Contact Managing Broker
Don Bailey
Email Don
80+- Acres Wayne County IL
Wooded and Open with CRP Income
Located Southeast of Xenia IL
Located a few miles SE Xenia IL with frontage on a good road. Good area for deer and turkey. 59.8+- acres in CRP paying $6,100 annually.
31.7 acres pays $102 per acre and expires 2024
3.3 acres pays $102 per acre and expires 2024
14.6 acres pays $102.20 per acre and expires 2015
8.7 acres pays $107.87 per acre and expires 2018
10.2 acres pays $102.20 per acre and expires 2017
Soil weighted average for corn 126.3, soybeans 41.8 and wheat 50.7. Crop productivity index 94.4.
Part of Sections 24 and 25, T2N-R5E, Garden Hill Township, Wayne County IL
Real Estate Taxes: $172.21
Maps / Interactive Map / Property Flyer / List Price $316,000 / $3950 Per Acre
|For More Information Contact Managing Broker Don Bailey
Cell 618-919-1031 / Office 855-223-3006 / Email Don
Information is believe to be accurate but is in no way guaranteed. Prospective buyers should exercise due diligence.
Click HERE for more detailed disclosure.
© Buy A Farm Land and Auction Company LLC / 1403 Hillcrest Drive, Sparta IL, 800-443-1998
Page updated Thursday, October 16, 2014
Website designed and maintained by Sherry Zollner


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Tabitha Bianca Brown is the artist behind The Pairabirds on Etsy. Brown recieved her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration from the American Academy of Art, in Chicago. In her words, "The Pairabirds" is about "reinterpreting classic soul and modern minimalism." From her little studio outside of Chicago she writes This is My Happy Place about being … Continue reading
Crystals, Stones, Minerals and Gifts Since 1987
{from the farmstead}
"Whatever transcends being must also transcend knowledge." - Pseudo-Dionysius
information about psychopaths
Come to the Yerba Buena Night Art Walk on Saturday October 11, 2014 from 4- 7pm in the Yerba Buena neighborhood.
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Explore ideas worth spreading, every weekday
A child of Jewish, Iraqi, Persian immigrants has a take on life
Sharing local gems around San Francisco + on the road, too.
cultural magpie
Classic Pictures From LIFE Magazine's Archives
Kurdish and Turkish women's rights
Dr. Strangelove or: How Helping Create the Atomic Bomb Traumatized Me
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Alaska Gateway School District Adopts Combined Heat and Power
|Positive Impact:
|Tok School was able to rehire three staff members thanks to the $125,000 annual savings from the new boiler.
|Alaska Gateway School District
|EERE Investment:
|Technical assistance
|Clean Energy Sector:
|Energy-saving homes, buildings, and manufacturing
In Tok, Alaska, the economic impact of high fuel prices was crippling the community's economy—especially for the Alaska Gateway School District, with staff laid off and double duties assigned to many. To help offset high energy costs, the school district decided to replace its separated diesel heat and power systems with a biomass combined heat and power (CHP) system. Northwest Clean Energy Application Center, an EERE-supported organization, aided this project by providing technical support to develop a woody biomass CHP system, which uses a 5.5-million British thermal unit steam turbine (120-kilowatt capacity) in lieu of diesel heating and diesel power generation. The system heats the 80,000-square-foot local school and will soon allow the school to begin construction this summer on a greenhouse that will grow fresh vegetables for the school district's food service program. Tok School spends more than $300,000 annually on heating fuel and electricity, and the boiler will save an estimated $125,000 per year on fuel. Once the CHP systems are fully operational, the rate of biopower consumption will increase, with an anticipated use of 5–6 tons of biomass per day; this biopower will displace approximately 65,000 gallons of heating fuel. Because of the biomass CHP project's anticipated and realized savings, Tok School has been able to rehire three staff members for the school—a music teacher, counselor, and boiler operator. Once more savings are realized and biomass CHP is expanded into other sites, the school anticipates further improvements to student services.
The Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) partners with industry, small business, universities, and other stakeholders to identify and invest in emerging technologies with the potential to create high-quality domestic manufacturing jobs and enhance the global competitiveness of the United States.
Learn more about this topic:


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Dr. Cedars has one office in California.
Specializing in the field of Reproductive Endocrinology, Dr. Cedars is prepared to provide care that is focused on the hormonal aspects of fertility and reproduction. Dr. Cedars is trained to deal with issues such as infertility, menstrual disorders, sexual dysfunction, menopause and hormonal imbalances, among other complications that relate to reproduction.
Dr. Cedars works with eight doctors including Dr. Nam Tran and Dr. Alberuni Zamah.
Provides options for the management of infertility in patients struggling with conception.


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If you are like me, you wait not so patiently each month to see what fabulous new Pure Innocence sets that MFT is releasing. Well, today is the day you have been waiting for! Today we are previewing four brand new Pure Innocence stamp sets! All four sets are fabulous! To see the full list of designers participating today be sure to check out Kim's blog about 11:00am EST.
My first card features the new Make Mine a Double stamp set. Doesn't she look sweet with her double cone? I stamped the image on a Perfect Paper Panel and I colored it with Copics. I decided to go a little wild here and I used some Orange card stock and embellishments! lol I used Pumpkin Pie, Hot Fudge and Sno Cone for card stock. The patterned paper is from October Afternoon.
I used a number of Baby Braddies on this card, they were just the perfect size! I finished off the card with some Orange May Arts Grosgrain and some We Are Memory Keepers trim.
My next card features the new Boy & His Dog set Tree Swing. He is such a cutie! I probably should have roughed up the knees on his overalls, that would have been a better representation of most little boys playing on rope swings! lol
I stamped the main image on a Cream Perfect Paper Panel, the overalls were paper pieced and the rest of the image was colored with Copics. I added some Brown Baby Braddies and some gorgeous Cream Ribbon to finish off the card. The card stock is Hot Fudge, the paper is Early Bird from Cosmo Cricket.
I have one more card to share with you today, this one features the new Book in Hand stamp set. This image really reminds me of the uniforms that we had to wear to school in England. I think the Grey sweater is a staple in school uniforms over there!
I used some Going Grey, Old Olive and Sno Cone card stock. The patterned paper was from Cosmo Cricket and October Afternoon. I finished the card off with some Kiwi Kiss ribbon and a corduroy button.
You've only got another day or two to get your entry in for this months MFT Guest Designer Contest! I'll let you in on a little secret, the stamps for next month are simply amazing (you knew I was going to say that!) so you will definitely want to give it your all! You can find all the details about the challenge HERE.
Be sure to join us again tomorrow as we will be previewing two new Jolinne sets!


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Were going to earn it the old fashion way of giving you something for doing almost nothing. All you have to do is like us on Facebook and you will be entered for a random drawing every month to win a free thermostat. The winners will be announced the last week of every month. One like means 12 chances to win every year since the drawing will be placed once a month.
Current Articles
RSS Feed
There are many things that can go wrong with your home heating system. The most common problems that break down causing your heating system not to work is the control board, flame sensor, and the gas valve. We listed what they do, what happens when they break down and the cost to replace them with a qualified heating repair company. The prices listed below are averages and are for references only. You should research any heating repair company before having them over. Asking questions is important to getting the best repair for your home.
Control Board
Flame Senor
Gas Valve
The control board to any furnace will control the order of operation to the entire heating system. It will modulate when the pilot flame turns on, the gas valve, the blower motor and connect all the sensors. Some problems with your furnace when your control board is not working properly are:
The price to replace your furnace control board can run from $475 to $675 depending on the model and type of furnace you have. The more features your furnace has can bring the cost up. There is no set price to replace a board since every heating repair company can charge what they want. The average heating repair company will charge anywhere from $475 to $675. Installing a new control board to your furnace required removing every wire that connects to the furnaces and removing the furnace control board from its mounts.
The flame sensor to your heater is exactly what it sounds like. It senses the flame of the pilot and or the main flame. When the flame sensor detects the flame it sends a signal back to the control board telling it to stay on. When the flame sensor is not working properly you will have these problems:
Replacement of the flame sensor cost about $175 to $375 depending on the make and model of the furnace. Sometime you don't need to replace the sensor, you can scuff the sensor with sand paper and it will detect the flame.
The gas valve provides gas to the furnace. It works with the control board to regulate the gas going into the system. The gas valve controls the pilot flame and the main gas flame. Some gas valves are smart valves that need an independent board or module to regulate properly. Without the gas valve your heater will never work. Some problems that happen when your gas valve isn't working properly:
The cost to replace your gas valve can range from $475 to $575 to install with parts and labor. Installation of the gas valve includes removal of all the wires to the valve. Removal of all piping from the main gas line, and removal of the pilot tubing is required. Installation of the new gas valve requires new pilot tubing and reinstallation all piping to the new gas valve.
By: Angel Muro
We Service: | Cerritos, CA | Cypress, CA | Downey, CA | Fullerton, CA | Hacienda Heights, CA | La Habra, CA | La Mirada, CA | Lakewood, CA | Montebello, CA | Monterey Park, CA | West Covina, CA | Whittier, CA | and Surounding Areas
© 2014 Comfort Time Heating & Cooling


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- Details
- Parent Category: AboutUs
- Published on Monday, 21 June 2010 02:59
Atlanta Jewish Academy is a college preparatory, co-educational, preschool-12th grade, independent Jewish Day School, guided by modern orthodox values and principles. We embody the ideals of community, tradition, individual development, and educational innovation. Atlanta Jewish Academy develops the whole person for college and life by fostering a love of Torah, Israel, and all Jewish people through an excellent secular and Judaic education within an inclusive, nurturing community.


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Anthony Logistics for Men Body Building Hair Thickening Shampoo
IngredientsAqua, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate, Disodium Laureth Sulfosuccinate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Glycol Distearate, Cocamide Mea, Laureth-10, Sodium Chloride, Parfum, Stearyl Dihydroxypropyldimonium Oligosaccharides (Oligoquat M), Malus Domestica Fruit Cell Culture Extract, Glycerin, DMDM Hydantoin, Ceramide A2, Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride, Carbomer, EDTA, Benzalkonium Chloride, Silk Amino Acids, Capispheres™, Swertia Chirata Extract.
Anthony Logistics for Men Body Building Hair Thickening Shampoo helps strengthen the hair and fortify follicles for fuller-looking hair.
- Swiss apple stem cells help repair hair.
- Ceramides help protect hair.
- Swertia chirata extract discourages hair loss.
- Sugar cane polymer helps strengthen and repair damage.
Apply to wet hair. Massage into hair for 1 to 2 minutes. Rinse and repeat.
Folica stands behind the authenticity of everything we sell. Since 1998, Folica has made it our mission to provide you with an outstanding selection of hair and beauty products at highly competitive prices.


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MyAnneArundel is an integrated mapping application that was developed to provide the County's citizens, businesses, and visitors with access to useful services and data. Please click on one of the following "Themes" and follow the subsequent instructions to launch that specific area of the application:
|Please Pardon the interuption while My Anne Arundel is under maintenance.
General Information and Crime Statistics
Find information about County Services based on an address or obtain community specfic crime statistics that are classified by incident type.
|Public Works Maps, As-Built Engineering Drawings and Survey Monuments Research and Retrieve Record Drawings and Survey Monuments.
Watershed, Ecosystem, and Restoration Services
My Anne Arundel Zoning Viewer
Street Viewer
GIS Data Download
By acceptance of the GIS material, you agree as follows: The GIS material (the "material") is made available by Anne Arundel County, Maryland (the "County") as a public service. The material is for reference purposes only, and the County makes no representatives, warranties, or guarantees of the accuracy of the material.
THE COUNTY MAKES NO AND DISCLAIMS ALL EXPRESS AND IMPLIED WARRANTIES RELATING TO THE MATERIAL, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, INTEGRATION, TITLE, AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.You release the County, its agents, servants, and employees, from any and all liability related to the material or any of it, including its accuracy, availability, use, and misuse. In no event shall the County be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, or other damages, including savings, profits, fees, costs, loss of data, or business interruption, related in any way to the material or any of it, including its accuracy, availability, use, and misuse. The material is in the public domain and may be copied without permission. Citation to the source is requested. Any errors or omissions in the material should be reported to the Anne Arundel County Office of Information Technology Geographic Information Services Group.
Jessica Lynn Lee
Myra Cason
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Mary "Kathy" Grant
Quaniece Orange
Diane Lynn Miller
Sandra Knight Berkey
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Pamela Lynn Conyers
Anne Arundel County Police
Homicide Unit - Cold Case Squad
(410) 222-3456
or call
Metro Crime Stoppers
(410) 276-8888
Text Message the letters "MCS" plus your message to 274637
You do not have to give your name, anonymity guaranteed
Anne Arundel County, MD. 44 Calvert Street Annapolis, MD. 21401 | Telephone: (410) 222-7000 | Suggestions | Disclaimer
Copyright 2008; All rights reserved


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It cooled down a bit yesterday, and I was craving something spicy and corn-y, so I turned to the time honored tradition of soup.
Soups are wonderful because the wisdom is really true that they only get better the longer they sit in the fridge, and they're also a great way to enjoy a healthy, filling meal that is high in vegetables.
Here is a template for a soup. It's pretty much what I made yesterday:
Spicy Corn and Potato Chowder
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cans sweet yellow corn
1 can black beans
5 peeled and chopped medium-large potatoes
5 cups good chicken/vegetable stock
1 dried ancho chile, rehydrated and chopped
1 fresh jalapeno chile, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1-2 carrots, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
hot red chile flakes
salt and pepper to taste
sour cream
smoked cheddar cheese
squeeze of lime
Sautee onion, celery, jalapeno, and carrot in olive oil until softened slightly. Add garlic, ancho, and rest of spices to your desirablility. Add in chopped potatoes and toss to coat with spices and herbs. After a minute, add the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Simmer the potatoes for about 15-20 minutes or until soft. Then take about half the soup (mostly potatoes plus a bit of broth) and blend in a blender or food processor, until thick, stirring it back into the pot after. Now you may add the drained corn and beans, reheat slightly, and test for seasonings. Dress this soup up well, it really lends itself to fixins.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
1 comment:
- ElischaJune 15, 2010 at 7:10 PM
This sounds amazing! I was just wondering what to cook for dinner tonight and now my wondering is over. I already have the ingredients at home, too! Can't wait to try it. Thanks for the recipe :)ReplyDelete
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Pennsylvania Girl Scouts robbed of cookie cash outside grocery store
Police: Man stole $20
BERWYN, Pa. - Police are investigating the strong-arm robbery of Girl Scouts who were selling cookies at a Pennsylvania supermarket.
The theft happened at a Pathmark store in Tredyffrin Township, outside Philadelphia, around 5 p.m. Sunday.
WPVI-TV reported the thief reached into a cash box containing the scouts' cookie money.
He got $20 before the girls closed the box. Police say the suspect then fled to the back of the building and drove off.


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Sorry for you man, but with a recent Nvidia, when it works, it works as in windows.
Type: Posts; User: legluondunet; Keyword(s):
Sorry for you man, but with a recent Nvidia, when it works, it works as in windows.
Hello Carlos,
I often consult your wine video tests on Youtube, you've done a nice job.
i didn't know exactly how many fps I gained for this games but:
--> injustice: now fullspeed, graphic...
I'm a linux gamer, I play on Steam Linux game but windows game too with Wine.
I recently changed my graphic card from a AMD 7850 to a Nvidia GTX 770, it's a night and the day change!
The Nvidia...
I just tested this version, I didn't find Start Desktop Menu...How to activate this option?
That's exactly my point, why pay for Parted magic when Gparted is free and available on Ubuntu live CD? (and perhaps other distributions..)
"if you want compatibility and performance on games using wine, your only option for this moment is NVIDIA"
I use a AMD 7850 for one year and I can confirm that point! Even if AMD has improved a...
From my part, I just tested nouveau drivers with kernel 3.13, what an impressive progress! This driver could now run 3D games like a PS1 emulator and the game ran like with proprietary drivers. I'm...
Do like you prefer, but Linux community needs people that report bugs, Linux is not an individual OS, it's a community OS and devs need everyone talent to make it better.
I tested wine 1.7.1 precompiled cmst patched version from here:
Very impressive! Some games i could...
Yes! Even modern terminal have the preview pictrues feature, incredible! lol
I think I'm goidn to adopt Final Term, nice app :-)
Good question! It is one reason I don't use it anymore. No transparency for a 2013 terminal? It's a joke?
An asking feature 9 years old and present on all modern OS: preview picture in file...
I use a AMD Radeon 7850 for 1 year but I'm going to return to Nividia Land soon. As a gamer, I saw most of wine game run better with a Nvidia card. The fault to Wine or Amd drivers? Even AMD made a...
thank you but is it an official AMD forum? I looked some bug and I didn't see any answer from AMD staff...
Just installed it on Ubuntu raring 13.04.
Where could I report bug if I will find one (or more...)?
I can not install it on Ubuntu 13.04
I'm using Ubuntu Quantal 64bits. With Catalyst 12.11 beta, video overlay was buggy too.
thanks to post this soluce, this could help. From my side i'm using last 12.12 drivers version with my radeon 7850 with no problem. Be carefull, I had unstability with the 12.11 drivers version, X...
Same bug for me, but this new official AMD drivers version is working better for me than the last beta.
Skyrim V works well with wine > 1.5.1x
Reply to myself: it works!


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Good to know:
If you are new to Magnolia Park or have a new neighbor, Packages about the Association as well as the Magnolia Park Pool along with applications are available now. For more on this contact Donald Consos.
The Magnolia Park Pool is located on the corner of Morgan Street & Bacon Park Drive. For membership for the 2014 pool season,information of this Family Friendly Pool and other questions in regards to pool events, swimming lesson etc. Please contact Allison Johnston at: 912-692-1228.
Summer will be soon here again and the pool is open to our neighborhood residents and members only.- Please stop by and see our wonderful pool, and become a member of the pool and neighborhood association. MPNA encourages all Magnolia Park residents to participate in our Association and become a pool member.
Read the editorial pieces from The Savannah Morning News and The Creative Coast News:
2014 Schedule of events:-
April - September : Each month - Yard of The Month
2014/ 2015 neighborhood events: Check our Facebook pages and newsletter in addition to below information
To sign up for the monthly newsletter, please email firstname.lastname@example.com with the header "MPNA newsletter Request"
December 2014- We are planning a Smore's party and hayrides......stay tuned.
For any events or meeting information please contact the MPNA president Donald Consos.
He can be reached at 912- 303-0101 for information on the association and all related questions.
Don't forget to pay your annual MPNA dues of $15,- per household.
2015 MPNA meeting dates: Meetings are on a quarterly base in January, April, July, October 2015- Please check back for more information on special meetings. Always at 6.30PM at the Southside Baptist Church on Skidaway Rd.- if not noted otherwise.
In the News:
Coverage of Magnolia Park's 4th of July Neighborhood Parade 2014 - A twenty year tradition
Magnolia Park Playground opens
Magnolia Park to get first class Food and Art venue
News about the Truman Linear Trail
Skidaway Road Project concerns of Magnolia Park residents voiced
4th of July 2012 -Annual Magnolia Park Parade & Picnic at the Pool
Savannah Morning News- Major Edna Jackson hands out " Good neighbor award" to Magnolia Park's Dan Murphy
Savannah Morning News- Magnolia Park " Birding Paradise"
Morning News - Magnolia Park turns out in numbers to cheers and assist for Rock n'Roll Marathon
Green Source Magazine names October 2011 "Best Green Home":
Magnolia Park ready to Rock n' Roll:
WTOC and The Savannah Morning News covered our fabulous 4th of July Parade and Picnic at the pool.
Magnolia Park Mid Century Modern Residence to win prestigious President's Preservation award from the Historic Savannah Foundation- the home is the first project South of Derenne receiving honors by the HSF.
The annual Magnolia Park Neighborhood Association Holiday Caroling event was held on December 06, 2010. The enchanting Holiday tradition was featured in the Savannah Morning News and online:
One of our featured neighborhood businesses got media attention as well:
The new website launch is featured on the NEWS Blog of The Creative Coast:
See "Abbey's story" by Magnolia Park Resident Anne Hart featured on savannahnow.com
Come and understand how our neighborhood network works


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Fri, 06/06/2014 - 6:15pm
- Evesham
at Cherry Hill Loews Theater
Your favorite Librarians are going to see The Fault In Our Stars in theaters! Want to come? Meet us there! We will be meeting at the Loews Theatre in Cherry Hill on Friday June 6th for the 7pm showing. You will be responsible for your own ride/tickets. We'll meet in the lobby and head in together. Meeting time is 6:15PM. Registration is Required (we need to know how many to expect!). The movie is 125 mins.
By your tickets online: http://www.fandango.com/thefaultinourstars_170089/movieoverview
OR at the door.
See you there!
- Teen
Registration Status:
- Registration Required
Presented by:
Shannon Fagan


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Definitions for off-day
This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word off-day
Princeton's WordNet
a day when things go poorly
"I guess this is one of my off-days"
Find a translation for the off-day definition in other languages:
Select another language:
Discuss these off-day definitions with the community:
Use the citation below to add this definition to your bibliography:
"off-day." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2014. Web. 21 Dec. 2014. <http://www.definitions.net/definition/off-day>.


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Podcast: Download (Duration: 10:11 — 9.4MB)
For many people, including myself, George Lucas represents the connective tissue in the love affair between science and fantasy. He provided us with a world that, not only was beyond what we could imagine, but outside of the rules of imagination. We know it is impossible to shoot cannon through a window at a tie fighter, just as we know that laser beams do not extend to just over a meter in length from a flashlight and then stop in mid-air. And while we're at it, why didn't the princess just e-mail the plans to the rebel base on Yavin. But I digress.
This week, Mr Lucas, announced his retirement from film. No doubt he will withdraw to a sunny retirement home on Tattoine and reflect on the life he has had.
He can enjoy the fact that he changed the face of science fiction – every movie made after "Star Wars" paid homage to it in some way, either in design or, more blatantly, in opening scene – yes I'm talking to you Alien!
He redefined the rules of science fiction, moving away from a clean, sterile environment, to a more lived in, gritty and true to life vision.
Without a doubt, he revolutionised the special effects industry, championing motion control, that just about everyone copied afterwards, or if they couldn't they'd hire ILM to do it for them.
In the world according to George, space and spaceships were dynamic, fast paced, not the soaring, boring two minute glide across the screen that we saw in Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.
His retirement, hopefully also means that he will finally walk away from the Star Wars movies that have been described by some as a death of a thousand cuts. The tinkering with the happy memories of millions, that effectively left them feeling upset, unhappy, and in some cases violated.
There will continue to be those who say "Han shot first", and "Did the Death Star explosion really need the shock wave effect?" I'm sure they would debate the virtues of a CGI Yoda , to the living, breathing latex imbued physical puppet.
Just remember guys , the same chap you claim should have the Star Wars trilogy tackled and wrestled from his hands by force, is the same one who filled your sense of wonder in 1977, when the cinema lights dimmed and you read those immortal words "A long time ago in a galaxy far far away".
So let's give him the golden watch and hope he enjoys the quiet life!
Links to this week's episode
- http://goo.gl/zjhIa Terminator 5
- http://goo.gl/NX8Iy Ray Bradbury
- http://goo.gl/rtIRa Sam L Jackson for Robocop
- http://goo.gl/GXJgS Meet the Governor
- http://goo.gl/QAb5W George Lucas retires
- http://goo.gl/45vy6 Justice League movie?