text:
What is the theme of The Fountainhead?
In Ayn Rand's words, the theme is "individualism vs. collectivism, not in politics but in men's souls." The story opposes two different methods of approaching reality, including other people: using one's own mind to the conscientious best of one's ability—or surrendering one's mind, in various forms, to the beliefs and wishes of others; being cognitively and psychologically independent—or being dependent on others for one's ideas and values; seeking truth in nature, in the facts and laws of reality—or in society, in the opinions and unsubstantiated claims of others. The Fountainhead dramatizes the life-promoting nature of the virtue of independence—of guiding every aspect of one's life by one's own mind—and, as a corollary, the inevitable destruction wrought by abandoning one's mind.
In the story of architect Howard Roark, Ayn Rand shows the struggle of innovative thinkers against the entrenched beliefs of a society hostile to new ideas. Historically, the revolutionary thinkers who carried mankind forward—from Socrates to Galileo to Darwin to Pasteur to many others—were generally denounced and opposed by the men of their day for championing ideas that challenged prevailing social doctrines. Sometimes the independent thinkers were tortured and executed, but the truth of their ideas could not be stifled—and, in the long run, they triumphed. Howard Roark's struggle and ultimate triumph is the author's testament to the great independent minds who, in promoting progress against daunting social opposition, have enormously benefited all of our lives.
Roark's independent life and work are opposed by a variety of characters whom Ayn Rand terms "second-handers," i.e., those who gain their ideas and convictions by uncritical obedience to, or blind rejection of, others—those who permit other people to dominate their lives. For example, there are the traditionalists, who uncritically follow the architectural principles of the past—such as the Dean of Stanton Institute, Guy Francon, and Ralston Holcolmbe. There are the conformists, who pander to the tastes of the public, e.g., Peter Keating. There are the non-conformists, who claim to rebel against the standards of others, but in fact are rebelling against all standards, including rational ones, instead following their whims, e. g., Lois Cook, Gordon L. Prescott, Gus Webb and the other avant-garde artists. Above all, there are the socialists—Ellsworth Toohey and his followers—who seek to impose a collectivist dictatorship on America.
What all of these individuals share is an implacable hostility toward the independent mind. All share the premise that, in one form or another, an individual should be cognitively and psychologically—and, according to Toohey, economically—dependent on others.
How would you characterize the hero of the novel, Howard Roark?
Although he possesses all of the moral virtues (for Ayn Rand's definition of the virtues, see "The Objectivist Ethics" in Virtue of Selfishness), Howard Roark's character is a dramatization of the essence of a specific virtue: independence. He guides his work and his personal life—indeed, every aspect of his existence—by the conscientious judgment of his own mind. He is a brilliant man, it is true—but above all, he is a thinker, a man who employs every ounce of his intelligence in the governing of his own life. Because of these two qualities, he is a creative genius. Independence is a primary orientation to reality, not to other men. It means that one seeks knowledge by the most scrupulously honest use of one's own mind, not by an uncritical acceptance of the opinions of others. It means that one looks to reality for truth—at the laws and facts of nature—rather than takes public opinion polls. An independent individual is neither a conformist nor a non-conformist—he doesn't follow others and doesn't as a fundamental principle rebel against them. He thinks—and consequently, lives by his own judgment. As discussed above, he is a first-hander, a man who sees reality through his own eyes, understands it in his own mind, and lives in accordance with his own judgment.
Being independent, Roark is concerned with his own happiness, and achieves it by means of his own thinking and effort. In other words, he is consistently egoistic. Egoism is a moral code exhorting men to be the beneficiary of their own actions, i.e., to pursue their own happiness—or, put negatively, to never sacrifice the self. Roark, who remains true to his own judgment, who always pursues and never betrays the values on which his happiness depends, represents Ayn Rand's vision of the actual nature of egoism. True egoism, the author shows, lies in holding rational values, i.e., ones that, given man's nature, factually, objectively promote human life—and then indefatigably pursuing such values by means of one's own effort, not by the victimization of other men. Keating, who embodies the traditional view of egoism as the cynical exploitation of others, is, in fact, the antithesis of a selfish man or egoist. He is utterly selfless, as discussed below.
How would you characterize the heroine, Dominique Francon?
Dominique Francon is one of the novel's most fascinating, and most misunderstood, characters. Dominique, an impassioned idealist, reveres only human beings at their highest and best. This is why she loves the Greek statuette, Roark's buildings, and Roark himself—for these are, respectively, an artistic projection of human nobility, an exalted achievement by man, and a sublimely heroic man.
But Dominique is also a philosophical pessimist, who believes that the great men of integrity she worships have no chance in this world. She fears that Roark and his accomplishments will be scorned by a mindlessly corrupt society that repudiates a vision of man the hero. Dominique thinks the world will inevitably prefer Keating's copied designs to Roark's brilliantly innovative ones, just as it favored the mediocrity of her own father to the genius of Henry Cameron. Worst of all, she recognizes, is that society holds up as a moral exemplar the man least worthy of it: the malignant power seeker, Ellsworth Toohey.
Because of this inner struggle, Dominique destroys the Greek statuette that she loves. There is no world for the heroic vision of man it projects. It suggests a world that does not exist, a world she craves—and because for her it must be all or nothing, she chooses nothing. Consequently, Dominique is best described as an embittered idealist.
Because of her exquisite idealism, she is drawn irresistibly to Roark's moral and intellectual stature; but because of her profound pessimism, she believes he will inevitably be destroyed. She joins Toohey in an anti-Roark alliance, seeking to wreck his career. For Toohey it is an attempt at spiritual murder—but for Dominique it is mercy killing. It is all-important to her that Roark's professional life end quickly and painlessly, not in a doomed struggle similar to Cameron's. Her inner conflict manifests itself dramatically: she works by day to take commissions away from Roark but spends her nights with him in the most passionate love-making. (Note the relatively harmless nature of Dominique's campaign against Roark's career. She prevents him from receiving a number of small commissions—but is not able to prevent him from gaining his kind of clients.)
Dominique, like Roark, is an independent thinker. Because she sees with her own eyes and understands with her own brain, she is not a blind follower of prevailing social trends. She observes that Roark gradually advances in his career and that all of Toohey's schemes are powerless to halt him. She notices that Keating fails—and fails because he betrayed his self. Based on her grasp of the facts, Dominique comes to see that her original assessment was mistaken and that Roark's was accurate: where men are free to think and act on their judgment, they will, in time, come to recognize the accomplishments of a Roark-type hero. Consequently, in the long term, the men of integrity and achievement will not fail to gain the success they so abundantly deserve. With this realization, she is finally liberated from her fear that the great men will be inevitably destroyed—and free to pursue what she always wanted: an intensely passionate relationship with the extraordinary man she loves.
How would you characterize Gail Wynand?
Gail Wynand is the great tragic hero of The Fountainhead. Growing up in the tough slums of Hell's Kitchen, Wynand was a brilliant youth whose innovative ideas were always greeted with derision by the short-sighted men he worked for. Consequently, he came to believe that the only chance for pioneering thinkers was to gain power over the corrupt fools who, in his view, ruled human society. The result was the profoundly sad spectacle of Wynand's brilliantly original mind used for the degraded purpose of acquiring power over others.
Wynand is a man of mixed premises and, consequently, lives with deep inner conflict. He is a gifted independent thinker who "was not born to be a second-hander," and yet devotes his work to the most egregious form of dependency—the quest to control other men. Like Dominique, he reveres only men at their noblest and most exalted, e.g., Roark's designs and character, yet his lurid newspaper panders to men at their most ignorant and debased. For example, he selects for his art gallery only works of the most elevated standards, but does not apply the same criteria to his journalistic career.
The result of Roark's struggle with society determines the result of Wynand's inner conflict. For Roark is on trial for far more than the Cortlandt dynamiting. He is fundamentally tried for seeking success on his own terms rather than on society's. Because of this, Wynand is also on trial. If Roark is convicted, then Wynand is acquitted, for the publisher's view that independent thinkers can attain practical success only by selling their souls is thereby vindicated. But if Roark is acquitted, then Wynand is convicted, for Wynand's view is then shown to be utterly false: a man of integrity can achieve practical success; therefore, Wynand is guilty not merely of selling his soul, but of selling it unnecessarily. The superb dramatic conflict achieved when both Roark and Wynand rise to receive the verdict is based on the realization that, no matter the jury's decision, the hero will receive a heavy blow: either Roark goes to prison—or his dearest friend receives a guilty sentence on his entire career.
Dominique says to Wynand: "I think we have a great deal in common, you and I. We've committed the same treason somewhere." Her claim is accurate. The conviction they have in common is that the good have no chance to gain success, that only the ignoble rise to the top, that there is a breach between the moral and the practical—and that an individual must choose between a corrupt success and a noble failure. The key difference between them is that whereas Wynand pursues corrupt success, Dominique reconciles herself to noble failure. Wynand sells his soul—but Dominique holds onto hers. Wynand's moral character is mixed—but Dominique's is pure. This is why Dominique can be redeemed—but Wynand's power-seeking places him beyond redemption.
How would you characterize Peter Keating?
The basic struggle of The Fountainhead is between first-handers, or creators, and second-handers, between the independent men and the dependent ones. Keating is a classic example of one common form of second-handedness: blind conformity. A conformist is one who uncritically accepts the judgment, the standards, the values of others, who permits the beliefs of others to dominate his own life. A conformist surrenders his judgment, i.e., his mind, to others, thereby permitting them preeminence in guiding his life.
Keating is not a creative thinker and does not even value originality. On the rare occasion that he conceives an original thought, he betrays it. For example, in his youth he nurtured the dream of being a painter, but quickly relinquished it to satisfy his mother's demand that he pursue architecture. Similarly, as a young man, he loved Catherine Halsey, whom he planned to marry. But since the elegant and poised Dominique Francon made a far more positive impression on other people than the awkward, unprepossessing Catherine, Keating—on the advice of his mother and at the suggestion of Toohey—chose to sacrifice his judgment to satisfy theirs. He abandoned the plain woman he loved for the beautiful woman he did not.
Conventionally, Keating is considered an egoist, a man who would commit any moral transgression or crime to attain practical success. But Ayn Rand shows that, in reality, Keating is selfless, not selfish—and literally selfless, for a self is exactly what he lacks. An individual's self is fundamentally his values and the judgment he exercised in choosing them. But Keating chronically betrays his values and his mind, letting others set the basic terms of his life. For example, he does not seek to be a great architect; he desires others to believe he is a great architect. Impressing others, the fundamental drive of Keating's existence, is not a viable alternative to achieving personal values. Roark, the true egoist, fills his life with what he loves. Keating, his foil or antipode, sacrifices what he loves, and fills his life with what other people want. The consequence is: Roark gains happiness; Keating gains a few moments of pleasure when he shows off his trophy wife at a social function—but then must go home to a loveless, meaningless relationship. In contrast to Roark, Keating's life is utterly empty, as it inevitably must be for one who has betrayed every value dear to him.
How would you characterize Ellsworth Toohey?
Ellsworth Toohey is the arch-villain of The Foutainhead. He is the most egregious second-hander of all: the seeker of undiluted power. Every aspect of his existence—his personal life as well as his career—is, without exception, devoted to gaining control over others. For example, in his personal life, Toohey, masquerading as a benevolent mentor or avuncular friend, uses the naive trust of his protégés to gain unquestioned authority over their souls. Keating is a perfect illustration. For example, Keating surrenders the woman he loves to marry one he does not largely under Toohey's "guidance." Similarly, Hopton Stoddard regards Toohey on earth much the same way he expects to "regard God in Heaven." Additionally, after convincing Keating to give up Catherine for Dominique, Toohey takes his broken-hearted niece fully "under his wing," gaining unchallenged control over every aspect of her life. At the personal level, Toohey is a cult leader with hundreds of blindly obedient followers—similar to Jim Jones and as lethal.
But Toohey's lust for absolute power does not end with his cult following. For Toohey is the one character in the book with political goals—he is a Marxist intellectual, seeking to establish a communist dictatorship in America. He devotes his newspaper column, "One Small Voice," to architecture once a month and regularly uses it as a soapbox from which to spout socialist propaganda. Because such an independent thinker as Roark poses a profound threat to the communist dictatorship Toohey seeks to impose in America, the arch-power broker seeks to end his career. Deeper, Toohey recognizes that Roark is a creative genius and that he, Toohey, is not. Instead of admiring Roark's brilliant originality, Toohey's envy-riddled soul hates him for it. He confesses his goal regarding Roark to Keating: "I want him in jail . . . Locked, stopped, strapped—and alive . . . he'll obey. He'll take orders. He'll take orders!" Toohey hates him so desperately, that he wants him alive and broken in spirit, rather than dead. Toohey is clear about his own place in a future collectivist dictatorship: he will be the intellectual advisor behind the throne, guiding the dictator's decisions. He concedes he will never be happy, but his sick substitute for values is the power to ensure that nobody else will be able to achieve them either.
Toohey is more abjectly dependent on others than even Keating, whom he controls. Every aspect of his life, without exception, is devoted to the plots, schemes, scams and manipulations required to enslave and control others. Keating, at least, can design buildings, however inexpertly—and love a woman, however superficially and tragically. But Toohey is insufficiently rational to attain—or even seek—any positive values. He is relentlessly non-creative and non-constructive, incapable of operating a hammer, let alone becoming an architect. His writing and lecturing, for example, are not intended to disseminate truth—but to seduce the thoughtless to the related causes of "Toohey-ism" and communism. Power can be employed to either create or destroy. Roark possesses and wields the intellectual power to create; Toohey seeks and gains only the political, physical power to destroy. It is literally true, without hyperbole, that Toohey is helpless to deal with physical reality: his sadistic intelligence is capable only of "creating" power-lusting schemes, not of creating buildings or any other life-promoting values.
How would you describe the relationship between Roark and Dominique?
It is a love relationship based on reverence for the heroic in man. Roark's creative genius and, above all, his unyielding character embody everything Dominique values in life—man's capacity to achieve the noble and sublime. Similarly, Roark falls in love with far more than Dominique's beauty. Her exquisitely-sensitive intelligence and, especially, her high-minded idealism—her devotion to man at his highest and best—is the foundation of Roark's love for her.
The problem for their relationship is Dominique's pessimism, as discussed above. Roark's unique stature, combined with Dominique's belief in society's malevolent nature, leads logically to her conclusion that the man she loves will be inevitably destroyed—and, given her passion for values, she will feel every twist of the knife into the bleeding body that had been Roark's career. This is intolerable to her. Her love leads her irresistibly into his arms; her profoundly malevolent view of society leads her, as an act of mercy killing, to seek a quick, painless death to his career. In fundamental terms, the conflict in the heroine's soul cannot be quarantined and kept out of their relationship.
It is only by witnessing key events in the lives of Roark, Wynand, Keating and Toohey, over a period of years, that Dominique comes to recognize that heroic men like Roark can and do succeed; that men are not as depraved as she initially feared; that when men are free, many will, in time, recognize and sincerely honor the true heroes among men. When she comes to respect men's rational potential—their capacity to recognize truth, integrity, justice—she no longer fears an untimely end to Roark's career. She is liberated from the profound pessimism that permeated her social view and, consequently, from her internal conflict. She is free to pursue values in a world where rational individuals can achieve them—and she begins with the one uppermost in her personal pantheon: she marries Howard Roark.
Does Roark rape Dominique, and if so, isn't that a horribly immoral action?
Ayn Rand's own brief answer to the question (in a letter to a fan) was: "You say you were asked whether 'the rape of Dominique Francon by Howard Roark was a violation of Dominique's freedom, an act of force that was contrary to the Objectivist Ethics?' The answer is: of course not. It was not an actual rape, but a symbolic action which Dominique all but invited. This was the action she wanted and Howard Roark knew it."
The "rape" scene can only be understood in the context of Dominique's inner conflict between impassioned idealism and profound pessimism. Her idealism has led her to desire a hero like Roark—and no one less; her pessimism has led her to resist any and all attachment to values. Consequently, when Roark enters her bedroom, she resists him in every way she can, except by doing what would have stopped him—"an answer of simple revulsion" or a call for help.
Dominique can only love an exalted hero. But, in her view, exalted heroes have no chance in the world. Thus begins her tormented struggle to have the love relationship she desperately wants—but is terrified of. She scratches the marble slab of the fireplace in her bedroom to draw him into her life. She waits in mounting sexual frustration for the new piece of marble to arrive. She swats Roark across the face with a branch when he sends another worker to set the marble. Alone in her bedroom, she cannot sleep when he makes her wait an additional three days before coming to her. She feels "relief in the cold, contracting bite of the liquid on her skin" when she presses perfume to her temples. She thinks that she will "try" to sleep.
Though reduced to an animal desperate with sexual desire, she resists Roark when he advances. Or does she? "She did not know whether the jolt of terror shook her first and she thrust her elbows at his throat . . . or whether she lay still in his arms, in the first instant, in the shock of feeling his skin against hers, the thing she had thought about, had expected. . . ." She fights, she tries to smash Roark with a lamp, she seeks to escape his grip. Later, she thinks of their act, proudly, as a "rape." But Ayn Rand presents subtle details belying Dominique's assessment. Notice that although her servants are nearby and her mouth uncovered, she refuses to scream for help; that although she runs the water in her bath, hoping to scrub away Roark's touch, she refuses to get in, instead sleeping all night on the cold tiles of the bathroom floor: "She knew that she would not take a bath. She knew that she wanted to keep the feeling of his body, the traces of his body on hers. . . ." Though her father has great influence in this town and Roark is a lowly worker, she refuses to contact the police. When she meets Roark again at Kiki Holcombe's party, she is deeply in love and thinks of him as having the "face of a god." In their next intimate encounter, she gives herself to him in a "surrender more violent than her struggle had been."
That Dominique physically resists, there is no doubt. But there is equally no doubt that she deeply loves and desires Roark—and that he knows this. She resists Roark for the same reason she later tries to end his career, and earlier destroyed the Greek statuette: because she thinks the world is malevolent and the people in it undeserving of greatness, and that greatness cannot survive in such a world.
Ayn Rand presents Howard Roark as both virtuous and, by the end of the novel, successful (professionally and romantically). So, is he essentially moral or practical?
He is both. The choices he makes are practical—he is ultimately successful—because he is fully virtuous. Ayn Rand rejects any dichotomy between the moral and the practical. Unlike Wynand, Roark believes the fully virtuous man of integrity is possible; and unlike Dominique (until she corrects her error) Roark does not believe the universe is set against such a man.
Roark holds a theory on the relationship between morality and practicality that is positive and accurate. Human life requires the achievement of values. For example, homes must be built, food must be grown, medicines must be researched and developed, etc. Moral virtues are states of character by means of which human beings achieve the values their lives depend on. According to Ayn Rand, rationality is man's fundamental virtue precisely because it is by means of rationality that men create the values their survival depends on. Indeed, Roark's character dramatizes that without the virtue of independence men would be similar to a flock of sheep, unthinkingly following the beliefs of the crowd. But human beings cannot survive like sheep. It is only because independent thinkers achieved breakthroughs in philosophy, science, medicine, etc., that human society has been carried to the advances of the modern world. Therefore, the idea that virtue is an impediment to success is utterly false, even ludicrous. On the contrary, virtuous character traits are the only means by which men survive and prosper on earth. The literal truth is that virtue is a necessary condition of survival and prosperity. Roark's success is gained because he is independent, because he refuses to surrender his mind to others. He gains success because he is moral, not in spite of it. For example, were Roark not the principled man of integrity he is, his work would not have attracted "his kind of clients"—Austen Heller, Roger Enright, Kent Lansing, Gail Wynand, et al. Nor, if he were morally a lesser man, could he have won Dominique.
Similarly, Keating fails because he betrays his mind and his values, i.e., because he repudiates the virtues of independence and integrity. Human beings cannot survive by surrendering their minds—their means of survival—to others. A man can no more flourish by this means than a bird can by breaking its wings. Observe that Keating is not unintelligent. Early in the story, for example, he asks Roark for advice. Keating acknowledges that Roark knows more about architecture than their professors and that the expelled student loves it in a way that they never will; he states that Roark's judgment means more to him personally than the Dean's. Such incidents show Keating's acumen. But what good is ability if one squanders it? From his early childhood, Keating shows no willingness to resist pressure from others, i.e., his mother, and stand by his values. He places the judgment of others above and before his own. His ultimate demise dramatizes that because life requires the achievement of values—because it depends on an unswerving commitment to one's own thinking—the betrayal of one's mind and consequent surrender of one's values can lead only to failure and collapse. Once Keating relinquishes his mind and soul to others, his life is empty, utterly devoid of meaning—as it would have to be. Success and happiness require the virtues of independence and integrity, fundamentally, the virtue of rationality. Practicality is based in morality. There is no other path to a long-term flourishing life. Consequently, Keating ends a failure not in spite of surrendering his soul—but because of it.
Roark is supposed to be an egoist, but isn't he acting against his egoism by sacrificing certain important commissions on the grounds of esthetic integrity? Wouldn't it have been better for him if he had accepted the Manhattan Bank commission, with all the money that involved, despite disliking the changes the committee made to his plans?
According to Ayn Rand, a sacrifice is the surrender of a higher value for a lesser value or a non-value, and as such is always morally wrong. Sacrifices do contradict her theory of egoism. Although in several instances Roark refuses commissions that would help him gain fame and wealth, he is emphatically not guilty of such a vice. Indeed, the exact opposite is true. The integrity of his design, the artistic integration and perfection of his building, is far more important to Roark than any money or fame that could be gained by adulterating his work. Further, Roark knows that, in time, rational men will come to recognize the value of his revolutionary designs—and that, in a free society, nothing could prevent men from hiring him. Ultimately, he knows, he will gain commercial success on his terms—the only kind of practical success worth having.
Roark understands that compromising his designs would constitute an enormous impediment to his success. The problem is that he would, indeed, become known—but as what? As an architect who builds debased, corrupted, adulterated buildings. His type of clients—the Austen Hellers, Roger Enrights, Gail Wynands, et al.—would be repelled by such buildings. Such a compromise on Roark's part would make it significantly harder, not easier, to get the clients he seeks. If he became known as a designer of flawed, compromised buildings, it might take 20 years to live down his tainted reputation (assuming his reputation is not tainted forever).
Further, one could ask: would selling out his designs for "fame and fortune" make him happy? The answer is a resounding "no." Any time he thereafter looked at or thought of such a corrupted design his immediate response would be a deep sense of shame, not of pride or happiness. Joy comes from achieving one's values, not from surrendering or betraying them. If Roark permitted the debasement of his designs, he would be committing an act of self-sacrifice—and this he resolutely refuses to do.
How are Roark's love for Dominique, and his friendships and the help he gives others, consistent with egoism?
"Egoism" involves an individual's commitment to achieving the values that make possible human survival, prosperity, happiness. It means a man's dedication to the factual requirements of a flourishing life, such things as education, career, romantic love, family, friendship. Egoism does not mean the cynical exploitation or victimization of others. For the sake of their own happiness, Ayn Rand's heroes and heroines—as well as millions of rational individuals in real life—seek a passionate love relationship, e.g., Roark and Dominique. The same is true of the love Roark and Wynand felt for each other, and of the friendship Roark had with Steven Mallory and Mike Donnigan. Both love and friendship bring significant joy and meaning into an individual's life.
Further, there is no conflict between egoism and helping others—as long as there is no sacrifice involved (as described above, see Q&A 10). Rationally egoistic individuals help others all the time—as Roark helped Mallory. As another example, note that a man gains happiness from helping his wife, child or close friend; a competent physician earns both pride and a well-deserved fee by expertly administering to a sick patient, helping him recover from illness. There are countless ways in which a man helps both himself and others.
Does The Fountainhead portray a conflict between the heroic individual and the masses?
The key philosophical point is that the "masses" do not exist, only individuals do. A group of 5 billion human beings is nothing more than 5 billion individuals. Every individual is unique and unrepeatable—especially to the extent to which he practices the virtue of independence, which does not require Roark's genius, only his commitment to thinking for himself. Ayn Rand once observed that "There have never been any 'masses' in America: the poorest American is an individual and, subconsciously, an individualist." This was her view when she wrote The Fountainhead, and she held it for the rest of her life. Therefore, the so-called "masses" do not oppose Roark. Rather, some individuals do—and very few of them.
Toohey, of course, views human beings as "the masses," and seeks to transform America into a collectivist dictatorship. He fails in the same way and for an identical reason that the Soviet Union failed: there are in fact no faceless, mindless masses—only individuals, many of whom choose to think and vastly prefer freedom. (And to the extent that a portion of the population can be transformed into something like mindless masses, as in the Soviet Union, to that extent the country is doomed to misery, starvation, failure.) As an example, to the extent that a unique individual can be indicative of "the masses," the construction worker, Mike Donnigan, represents the best of "Everyman." Though of modest intelligence compared with the brilliant Roark, he knows a good quality building and an expert builder when he sees them—and he emphatically stands by Roark.
Most individuals hold no explicit ideas regarding architecture—although, to their credit, they may know what they like—or about intellectual issues more broadly. In the United States, many individuals are, sadly, indifferent to intellectual questions. Further, they necessarily take years, even decades, to recognize the merit of inventions and new ideas. But they generally do not oppose men of legitimate genius. For example, inventors like Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, George Eastman, became successful and honored men. In Roark's own field, such modernist designers as Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright eventually broke through to legitimate recognition and commercial success.
Even Keating, though his conflicted love-hate attitude toward Roark leads him several times to attempt to damage Roark's career, admires Roark beyond all other architects and comes to him because he understands that nobody else could design Cortlandt. Essentially, it is only Toohey, the Harvard-educated leader of the elite intelligentsia who opposes Roark. But in time, most members of this society, to the extent that they have interest in architecture, come to recognize Roark's creative talents and repudiate Toohey's assessment of his work and character.


text:
- Description
- Shipping
- Reviews
* Club version of MVA200 game ball
* Competition performance
* Unique 8 panel design
* Exclusive composite cover
* Nylon wound center
* 1-year warranty
Stocked items/orders placed before 1pm CST are shipped that day (business days only, Mon-Fri.).
Stocked items/orders placed after 1pm CST ship the next business day (Mon-Fri., no holidays).
Standard delivery time is between 1-4 days (see map below for delivery estimates).
We will notify you via email within 1 business day if there is any expected delay.
If there are non-stocked items on your order those will be shipped separate from your stocked items at no additional cost.
Team orders and orders paid with PO's may take additional processing days (between 3-5 business days).
For more information please visit our Shipping page and our Shipping Practices section.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Dear friends, Can you provide for me the average time it takes for a tomato to ripen from the time of blossom until picking? I know the time for a green pepper to ripen and change color is 20 days...but, I am uncertain about tomatoes and would like to understand this to calculate time to the "big tomato" harvest. Should I reduce watering to speed up ripening? Please help. |
Follow-Up Postings:
Tomato Timeline from fruit set to ripening. You can reduce watering to improve flavor but it doesn't really speed up ripening. Dave |
Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato Timeline
- Posted by carolyn137 z4/5 NY (My Page) on Mon, Feb 4, 13 at 13:57
Just noting that the timeline Dave linked to was done by Paul, who used to be here at GW and uploaded all of the new FAQ's that seveal of us wrote and cleared with the then memebers who were here at that time, in fact solicited their opinions on what should be included and what not to be included. You can find his name at the bottomof several of the Faq's we did such as How To Prevent Cross Pollination, the Foliage one and now I can't remember the others and if I go back to look I lose this post. LOL I miss Paul very much and never had his contact data so don't know what he's doing these days. Carolyn |
Please Note: Only registered members are able to post messages to this forum. If you are a member, please log in. If you aren't yet a member, join now!
Return to the Growing Tomatoes Forum
Information about Posting
- You must be logged in to post a message. Once you are logged in, a posting window will appear at the bottom of the messages. If you are not a member, please register for an account.
- Please review our Rules of Play before posting.
- Posting is a two-step process. Once you have composed your message, you will be taken to the preview page. You will then have a chance to review your post, make changes and upload photos.
- After posting your message, you may need to refresh the forum page in order to see it.
- Before posting copyrighted material, please read about Copyright and Fair Use.
- We have a strict no-advertising policy!
- If you would like to practice posting or uploading photos, please visit our Test forum.
- If you need assistance, please Contact Us and we will be happy to help.
Learn more about in-text links on this page here


text:
- Need to know
- Item details & Care
- Shipping & Returns
- Vivienne Westwood Anglomania's crimson asymmetric dress is cleverly cut for a flattering silhouette, with its cowl neck and coquettish ruches. Wear during the day for laid-back glamour, or at night, adorned with accessories and a statement bag. Model is 5'10 /178cm, a standard UK 8 and is wearing a size XS.
- Red viscose drape tunic dress featuring a cowl neck, an asymmetric shape and asymmetrical short sleeves. Vivienne Westwood Anglomania dress simply pulls on.
95% viscose, 5% lycra. - THIS ITEM IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE TO PURCHASE
Seeking Style Advice?
Contact our Style Adviser team for expert
advice and assistance on all your
style-related queries:
Call: (+44) 345 260 3880
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Monday to Friday between 9am and 6pm
Saturdays between 9am and 2.30pm.


text:
Canon Inc, Japan's largest maker of office equipment, said on Friday it would invest about 10 billion yen (approx. U.S. $93.99 million) to nearly double its annual production of ink-jet printers in 2005 compared with last year. Canon said it will build new plants on existing manufacturing sites in Fukushima prefecture, north of Tokyo, and in Vietnam, while boosting production lines at a printer factory in Thailand, which is currently running near full capacity. It said the moves would lift its production of ink-jet printers, including multi-function and single-function models, to about 20 million units in 2005. Last year it produced about 10.6 million ink jet printers. Canon is trying to strengthen its presence in the worldwide printer market but faces severe competition from U.S.-based Hewlett-Packard Co. (H-P) and Japan's Seiko Epson Corp. According to Gartner Dataquest, Canon held 16.2 percent of the global printer market in 2003, third behind Seiko Epson at 22.1 percent and Hewlett-Packard's 39.5 percent. Canon estimates its global market share in single-function ink jet printers was about 20 percent in unit terms last year. Its share of the multi-function market was around 5 percent. The plant in Vietnam is due to be completed by March 2005. The new capacity will be used to assemble printer bodies and for production of sensors for scanners in multi-function machines. Canon will aim to complete the new factory in Fukushima by June 2004. It will be used to boost production of such items as ink jet cartridges. Canon's investment in printers follows a similar move to bolster its copier operations unveiled in March. It said it would spend about 20 billion yen on a new domestic plant at Toride in Ibaraki Prefecture, near Tokyo, for high-end copiers to accelerate product development and cut costs. (Reuters)
Back to Breaking News


text:
| Home | Advertise with Us | Circulation | Contact Us | About Us | Send a Letter to the Editor |
Even though Ive given them very little attention my tomato plants have become super producers. I happen to believe that tomatoes were given to us by Mother Nature for one purpose and one purpose alone: BLTs. I picked a couple of softball sized ripe red ones and went through my usual procedure: slice the tomato, use the two end slices for salad, and the middle slices for a tasty BLT.
Sometimes I use baloney for the B, but today I was using bacon from the freezer where it was stored.
I buy bacon in the traditional package and put it in the freezer. After its frozen, I slice it in half. Its much easier, and less messy, to deal with when its frozen. In this episode, I had already used one half, so I put the frozen bacon in the bacon frying pan (Dont ask) to thaw and cook and went off to water house plants. Oh look, I can spend a couple minutes on my reframing of this picture project, I said to myself. As you can imagine, this was an error on my part. I was alerted to my mistake by an odor of burning pork products. I rushed to the kitchen just in time to save calling the big red trucks, but the bacon was thawed for sure. I like crispy bacon; good thing!
So heres an Al Owne kitchen tip for you widowers out there. If you are frying bacon, stay right there with it even if its a little boring, its worth while.
As Ive told you I read a couple of advice columns in the newspapers, not for advice but for the humor sometimes and the wonderment of how people get themselves into such predicaments. If I see something that fits our situation, I often share it with you.
A 70 something widower wrote for advice because his 70 something single girlfriend couldnt get away from her mother. Dear whoever advised him to forget that romance. If you cant untie those apron strings by then, she thought maybe it was a little too late for the woman to become independent.
Have you noticed that advice columnists are women? I dont think that Ive ever read a newspaper advice column written by a man. Yet it seems that most psychologists are men. Dr. Phil has the ability to have people tell a TV audience of millions about their personal problems most of which would be whispered about behind closed doors in my family. There are a lot of things I dont understand in this world. One of them is how people can air their personal problems in newspapers or on TV.
Ive noticed a pickup in the membership of the widow/widower club lately. Newspapers have had a run on obituaries. Be nice to these rookies and invite them to some of the group activities available to the widowed population.
Al Own can be reached at email@example.com.


text:
Ex-Wife Says Gingrich Wanted 'Open Marriage'
POSTED: Thursday, January 19, 2012 - 10:48am
UPDATED: Thursday, January 19, 2012 - 12:41pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — Dredging up a past that Newt Gingrich has worked hard to bury, the GOP presidential candidate's ex-wife says Gingrich asked for an "open marriage" in which he could have both a wife and a mistress.
In an interview with ABC News' "Nightline" scheduled to air Thursday night, Marianne Gingrich said she refused to go along with the proposal that she share her husband with Callista Bisek, who would later become his third wife.
The explosive interview was airing just two days before the presidential primary in South Carolina, a state known for its strong Christian conservative bent, and as Gingrich was trying to present himself as the strongest alternative to GOP-front-runner Mitt Romney.
In excerpts of the interview released by ABC, Marianne Gingrich said Gingrich conducted his affair with Callista "in my bedroom in our apartment in Washington."
"He always called me at night and always ended with 'I love you,' " she said. "Well, she was listening."
Marianne Gingrich, who was Gingrich's second wife, told the network that Gingrich told her "Callista doesn't care what I do."
"He was asking to have an open marriage and I refused," she said. "That is not a marriage."
Gingrich was asked about his ex-wife's interview in advance of its airing on NBC's "Today" show. He said he wouldn't "say anything bad" about her and that he preferred not to address his personal life in detailed fashion. But he did say that members of his family had written ABC to protest the airing of the interview, saying they complained about the network "intruding into family things that are more than a decade old."
Marianne Gingrich has said that Gingrich proposed to her before the divorce from his first wife was final in 1981; they were married six months later. Her marriage to Gingrich ended in divorce in 2000, and Gingrich has admitted he'd already taken up with Bisek, a former congressional aide.
The speaker who pilloried President Bill Clinton for his affair with Monica Lewinsky was himself having an affair at the time.
As plans to air the interview were disclosed, Gingrich's campaign released a statement from his two daughters from his first marriage, Kathy Lubbers and Jackie Cushman, suggesting that Marianne Gingrich's comments may be suspect given the emotional toll that divorce takes on everyone involved.
"Anyone who has had that experience understands it is a personal tragedy filled with regrets, and sometimes differing memories of events. We will not say anything negative about our father's ex-wife," they said. "He has said before, privately and publicly, that he regrets any pain he may have caused in the past to people he loves."
Gingrich has worked in recent years to present himself as changed man who has embraced Catholicism.
A message seeking comment from Marianne Gingrich was not immediately returned.
In the NBC appearance, Gingrich said he planned to discuss "real stories," and said he'd have to leave questions about his character up to voters. He called his daughters "credible" character witnesses.
Comments News Comments
gingrich may be a "changed" man, but what a dispicable excuse for a husband, a Catholic, an honest person, or a trustworthy politician. The teavangelical/repub/libertarian parties have reached bottom with the remaining candidates...one liar who is worth $190 to $250 million and doesn't give a flip about ordinary folks, one liar who is ammoral, and one who would make us all Catholics...Democrats need to take back Congress and send President Obama back to the Oval Office. OBAMA 11/6/2012.


text:
Acer Travelmate 2414 Notebook (manufactures refurbished laptop) £329.99 incl delivery
If you want a low end, cheap laptop, you might want to consider this one. I know it is a refurbished laptop but they are giving you 9 months warranty. Spec is:
Intel Celeron-M 380 Processor 1.6GHz
512MB DDR SDRAM 40GB Hard Drive
DVD Dual Layer Drive - To read DVDs and CDs and write CDs, DVD+, DVD- and large Dual Layer DVD
15" XGA TFT Screen Intel GMA 900 64MB shared graphics Integrated LAN and 56k v.90 data fax modem Integrated wireless 802.11g - Call for advice on Wireless networking
4 USB 2.0 Sockets
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition 2.1-hour Battery Life
Weight 2.7kg
Order on-line or call 0800 0837447


text:
Pope Leo XII
It has been suggested that List of encyclicals of Pope Leo XII be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since January 2015. |
Pope Leo XII |
Papacy began | 28 September 1823 |
Papacy ended | 10 February 1829 (5 years, 4 months and 23 days) |
Predecessor | Pius VII |
Successor | Pius VIII |
Orders | |
Ordination | 4 June 1783 |
Consecration | 24 February 1794 by Henry Benedict Mary Clement Stuart of York |
Created Cardinal | 8 March 1816 by Pius VII |
Personal details | |
Birth name | Annibale Francesco Clemente Melchiorre Girolamo Nicola Sermattei della Genga |
Born | Genga, Papal States |
22 August 1760
Died | 10 February 1829 Rome, Papal States |
(aged 68)
Previous post |
Coat of arms | |
Other popes named Leo |
Pope Leo XII (22 August 1760 – 10 February 1829), born Annibale Francesco Clemente Melchiore Girolamo Nicola Sermattei della Genga,[a] reigned from 28 September 1823 to his death in 1829.
As pope, Leo XII's reign of the Papal States was unpopular among most people who would revolt in uprisings to some of the policies that he implemented.
Early life[edit]
Della Genga was born of a noble family from La Genga,[1] a small town in what is now the province of Ancona, then part of the Papal States. He was born to Flavio della Genga and Maria Luisa Periberti di Fabriano. He was the brother of Filippo della Genga. He was born at the Castello della Genga in the territory of Spoleto. [2] He was educated at the Accademia dei Nobili Ecclesiastici at Rome, where he was ordained priest in 1783. In 1790 the attractive and articulate della Genga attracted favourable attention by a tactful oration commemorative of the late Emperor Joseph II.
He was the uncle of Gabriele della Genga Sermattei who in the 19th century was the only nephew of a pope to be elevated to cardinal.
Papal nuncio[edit]
In 1792 Pope Pius VI made him a canon of the Vatican church,[2] and in 1793 created him titular archbishop of Tyre and despatched him to Lucerne as nuncio. In 1794 he was transferred to the nunciature at Cologne, but owing to the war had to make his residence in Augsburg.
During the dozen or more years he spent in Germany he was entrusted with several honourable and difficult missions, which brought him into contact with the courts of Dresden, Vienna, Munich and Württemberg, as well as with Napoleon I of France. It is, however, charged at one time during this period that his finances were disordered, and his private life was not above suspicion. For example he was suspected of having had a liaison with the wife of the soldier of Swiss Guard and allegedly fathered three illegitimate children.[3]
After the Napoleonic abolition of the States of the Church (1798), he lived for some years at the abbey of Monticelli, solacing himself with music and with bird-shooting, pastimes which he continued even after his election as Pope.
In 1814 della Genga was chosen to carry the pope's congratulations to Louis XVIII of France, upon his restoration; in 1816 he was created Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria in Trastevere. Later he was appointed Archpriest of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, and appointed to the episcopal see of Sinigaglia, which he resigned in 1818 due to health reasons.[2]
In May 1820 Pope Pius VII gave him the distinguished post of Vicar-General of His Holiness for the Diocese of Rome.[4]
Election as pope[edit]
Papal styles of Pope Leo XII |
Reference style | His Holiness |
Spoken style | Your Holiness |
Religious style | Holy Father |
Posthumous style | None |
Pope Pius VII died in 1823 after yet another long pontificate. In the conclave of 1823, della Genga was the candidate of the zelanti and in spite of the active opposition of France, he was elected as the new pope by the cardinals on 28 September 1823, taking the name of Leo XII. His election had been facilitated because he was thought to be at death's door, but he unexpectedly rallied. He had even remarked about his own health to the cardinals, saying that they would be electing "a dead man".[4]
Foreign policy[edit]
Pius VII's Secretary of State, Ercole Consalvi, who had been Della Genga's rival in the conclave, was immediately dismissed, and Pius' policies rejected.[5] Leo XII's foreign policy, entrusted at first to the octogenarian Giulio Maria della Somaglia and then to the more able Tommaso Bernetti, negotiated certain concordats very advantageous to the papacy. Personally most frugal, Leo XII reduced taxes, made justice less costly, and was able to find money for certain public improvements, yet he left the Church's finances more confused than he had found them, and even the elaborate jubilee of 1825 did not really mend financial matters.
Domestic policy[edit]
Leo XII's domestic policy was one of extreme conservatism: "He was determined to change the condition of society, bringing it back to the utmost of his power to the old usages and ordinances, which he deemed to be admirable; and he pursued that object with never flagging zeal."[6] He condemned the Bible societies, and under Jesuit influence reorganised the educational system, placing it entirely under priestly control through his bull Quod divina sapientia and requiring that all secondary instruction be carried out in Latin, as he required of all court proceedings, also now entirely in ecclesiastical hands. All charitable institutions in the Papal States were put under direct supervision.
Laws such as that forbidding Jews to own property and allowing them only the shortest possible time in which to sell what they owned, and that requiring all Roman residents to listen to Catholic catechism commentary, led many of Rome's Jews to emigrate, to Trieste, Lombardy and Tuscany.[7][8]
"The results of his method of governing his states soon showed themselves in insurrections, conspiracies, assassinations and rebellion, especially in Umbria, the Marches and Romagna; the violent repression of which, by a system of espionage, secret denunciation, and wholesale application of the gibbet and the galleys, left behind it to those who were to come afterwards a very terrible, rankling and long-enduring debt of party hatreds, of political and social demoralisation, and— worst of all— a contempt for and enmity to the law, as such."[9] In a regime that saw the division of the population into Carbonari and Sanfedisti, he hunted down the Carbonari and the Freemasons with their liberal sympathisers.
"Leo XII made himself intensely unpopular with his subjects by constraining them to observe endless rules and regulations concerning private as well as public matters. For instance, he decreed that any dressmaker who sold low or transparent dresses would be ipso facto excommunicated. To ensure against any possible disregard of this spiritual chastisement, the penalties for wearing the offending garments were made tangible and immediate, so it is unlikely that the seamstresses' pious allegiance was often put to the test.
According to some contemporary authors such as G.S Godkin, Leo XII was also said to have prohibited vaccination.[10] More recent scholarship has been unable to find any ban or any suggestion of a ban by Leo XII and his administration. Donald J. Keefe in his paper "Tracking the footnote"[11] traced a quote by Leo XII which strongly condemned vaccination to "an unverified citation" by Dr. Pierre Simon in Le Contredes Naissances. The response of the Papacy to the arrival of vaccination in Italy has been documented in Pratique de la vaccination antivariolique dans les provinces de l'État pontifical au 19ème siècle, an article written by Yves-Marie Bercé and Jean-Claude Otteni for Revue d'Histoire Ecclésiastique.[12] According to Bercé and Otteni, the biographers and contemporaries of Leo XII do not mention any interdict. The authors credit the origin of the mythical vaccination ban of Leo XII to the personality of Cardinal Della Genga when he became pope in 1823. His intransigence and piety alienated liberal opinion very quickly. His austere spirituality made him the target of criticisms and mocking remarks. English travelers visiting the peninsula and many of the diplomats established in Rome remarked on the severity of the pontiff. The obscurantism of the Church, the inertia of the pontifical government, the ridiculous superstitions of Italian piety, the idleness and the dirtiness of the Southerners were commonplaces stereotypes from the accounts of travelers to Italy.
Death and legacy[edit]
On 5 February 1829, after a private audience with the new Cardinal Secretary of State, Tommaso Bernetti, he was suddenly taken ill and he seemed to know that his end was near. On 8 February, he asked for and received the Viaticum and was anointed. On 9 February, he lapsed into unconsciousness and on the next morning, he died. He was buried in a monument of him in Saint Peter's Basilica.
Leo XII was a man of noble character, a passion for order and efficiency, but he lacked insight into the temporal developments of his time. His rule was unpopular in Rome and in the Papal States, and by various measures of his reign he diminished greatly for his successors their chances of solving the new problems that confronted them.[13]
See also[edit]
- ^ English: Hannibal Francis Clement Melchior Jerome Nicholas Sermattei della Genga
- ^ The town is now simply Genga.
- ^ a b c Toke, Leslie. "Pope Leo XII." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 9. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 28 Aug. 2014
- ^ Letters from Rome in: The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal, Tom 11, pp. 468-471.
- ^ a b Miranda, Salvador. "Della Genga, Annibale", The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church
- ^ Francis A. Burkle-Young, Papal Elections in the Age of Transition, 1878–1922, 2000:22ff.
- ^ Luigi Carlo Farini, Lo stato Romano, dell'anno 1815 a 1850, (Turin, 1850) vol. I, p. 17, quoted by Thomas Adolphus Trollope, The Story of the Life of Pius the Ninth vol. I (1877:39f)
- ^ Farini, 'eo. loc.
- ^ "Valérie Pirie, ''The Triple Crown: An Account of the Papal Conclaves''". Pickle-publishing.com. Retrieved 2013-06-23.
- ^ Trollope, p. 41.
- ^ Godkin, G. S. (1880). Life of Victor Emmanuel II. Macmillan
- ^ Donald J. Keefe, "Tracking the footnote", Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Newsletter, Volume 9, Number 4, September 1986 p. 6-7.
- ^ Pratique de la vaccination antivariolique dans les provinces de l'État pontifical au 19ème siècle Yves-Marie Bercé Jean-Claude Otteni[dead link]
- ^ "Pope Leo XII". Retrieved 24 January 2014.
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- [1]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Leo XII. |
External links[edit]
Catholic Church titles | ||
Last known title holder:
Vincenzo Ranuzzi |
Titular Archbishop of Tyre 21 February 1794 – 8 March 1816 |
Succeeded by Giacomo Giustiniani |
Preceded by Giulio Gabrielli |
Archbishop of Senigallia 8 March 1816 – 18 September 1816 |
Succeeded by Fabrizio Sceberras Testaferrata |
Preceded by Pius VII |
Pope 28 September 1823 – 10 February 1829 |
Succeeded by Pius VIII |


text:
- Advertisement
Most Popular
- 8 Historical Figures with Unusual Work Habits
- 8 Reasons Why Rome Fell
- 11 Things You May Not Know About Ancient Egypt
- 6 Daring Double Agents
- 10 Things You May Not Know About Genghis Khan
- 10 Things You May Not Know About the Vikings
- 10 Things You May Not Know About Roman Gladiators
- 8 Reasons It Wasn't Easy Being Spartan
Top Categories
History.com on Facebook
More to Explore
Mountain Men
Follow Eustace, Tom and Marty as they devote their lives to surviving off the grid, on their own terms.
Ask History: Rosie the Riveter
Get the real story behind this famous World War II icon.
This Day in History
Lead Story
U.S. Baseball Hall of Fame elects first members, 1936
On January 29, 1936, the U.S. Baseball Hall of Fame elects its first members in Cooperstown, New York: Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Matthewson and …
Shop HISTORY
Category: Ancient Rome
8 Things You May Not Know About the Praetorian Guard
Equal parts secret service, special forces and urban administrators, Rome's Praetorian Guard was one of the ancient world's most prestigious military units.
6 Infamous Political Conspiracies
From an ancient Roman coup d'état to the Lincoln assassination, get the facts on six of history's most notorious political plots.
8 Ways Roads Helped Rome Rule the Ancient World
Explore eight reasons why this remarkable transit system helped unite the ancient world.
10 Things You May Not Know About Roman Gladiators
Get the facts on the enigmatic men-at-arms behind Ancient Rome's most notorious form of entertainment.
8 Reasons Why Rome Fell
Find out why one of history's most legendary empires finally came crashing down.
5 Things You Might Not Know About Julius Caesar
Find out five fascinating facts about the man who famously proclaimed "I came, I saw, I conquered."
7 Famous Slave Revolts
Find out about seven groups of slaves who risked everything for a chance at freedom.
5 Ancient New Year's Celebrations
Get the facts on the ways 5 ancient civilizations rang in the New Year.
10 Innovations That Built Ancient Rome
From aqueducts to battlefield surgery, explore 10 inventions that epitomize the innovative spirit of ancient Rome.
7 Things You May Not Know About Caligula
Find out whether the much-maligned emperor was as crazy as they say.
7 Historical Figures Famous for Something They Never Did
Find out the truth about seven people who've become forever linked with something they never did.
6 Child Monarchs Who Changed History
Find out about six young rulers whose actions and decisions had very grown-up consequences.


text:
Breaking news: something disappointing is getting even more disappointing. We've always been unimpressed with Jessica Simpson's show, "The Price of Beauty," in which she and her best friends, Ken Paves and Cacee Cobb, travel around the world to discover what "beauty" means in other cultures.
But scratch that idea. Now it could become a makeover show. Keep reading »


text:
Welcome to Six Degrees
You have found the Community Health Hub you are looking for!
- Stress, Illness, Pain?
- Solutions, Options and Healing
You have been looking for support through healing & stress or for maintenance and wellness and you have found it.
Offering effective affordable health care for the past 7 years, Six Degrees is home to over 15 skilled and caring practitioners. We won't judge you, and we will take you seriously. We work with people towards their goals of health and wellness.
click this button to book your appointment online
email sign up
SIgn up for our email list by clicking HERE
How to Stay Healthy this Winter
By Jen Bowers
It's cold and flu season again and everyone knows just how miserable being sick can be, especially when there are so many things to do. Here are a few tips on how to stay healthy and happy this winter.
1. Spice it up! Using pungent herbs like cinnamon, ginger, pepper or garlic helps support your respiratory system.These herbs are also known to be antimicrobial and antibacterial, so they boost the immune system as well.
2. Wear a scarf! Your mother was right. Wearing a scarf around your neck helps to regulate your body temperature. In Chinese medicine we say that "wind attacks at the nape of the neck" and wind is the cause of colds and flu.
3. Salad is not your friend. Not at this time of the year, anyway. Try to stick with warm, cooked foods so your body needs to devote less energy to digestion and can spend more energy keeping viruses at bay.
4. Say no to sugar, Sugar is known to depress the immune system, so think twice before grabbing a cookie. Natural sugars are less problematic - try an apple instead. Bring sweetnes into your life by treating yourself to some flowers or smelling essential oils.
De-stress. Set aside sometime for yourself every day if you can. If you don't have time to rest, meditate or relax, give yourself a spa treatment in the shower - a nice head massage while you shampoo can go a long way. Spend twenty minutes reading before you go to bed, play with your pets, anything that makes you feel relaxed.


text:
Your cart is empty!
Aussie moist 2 in 1 hair shampoo for brittle hair - 13.5 oz
Our Price:$3.03
Head and Shoulders Dry Scalp Care 2 in 1 Dandruff Shampoo - 33.9 Oz
Our Price:$11.71
Nexxus Humectress ultimate moisturizing hair conditioner - 33.8 oz
Our Price:$20.04
Nexxus Humectress Ultimate Moisturizing Leave-In Hair Spray - 5.1 Oz
Our Price:$8.03
Optimum Oil Therapy Dry Hair Healer - 4 Oz
Our Price:$3.22
Herbal Essences hydralicious featherweight shampoo - 10.17 oz
Our Price:$3.57
Product descriptions and images presented on the site are for representational use only and do not constitute or substitute for medical information from your health care or medical professional. Information on this site is provided for informational purposes only. You should read carefully all on correct product packaging and follow the instructions. If you have or suspect that you have a medical problem, promptly contact your health care provider. Information and statements regarding dietary supplements on this site have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease and may be for commercial. Image shown for reference only. Actual item you recieve may differ from shown.


text:
About | Projects | Docs | Forums | Lists | Bugs | Get Gentoo! | Support | Planet | Wiki
Petteri Räty wrote: > http://lists.debian.org/debian-java/2003/06/msg00005.html This was what I feared, but hoped was not the case. > I like more the idea of making symlinks to /usr/include. That would be > more in line with our switching of vms for compile. I don't see how symlinks in /usr/include can work. If there are two users on a system, each with his own prefered VM, how can we export two sets of symlinks for that system? Furthermore, it will not be possible to switch the system VM's symlink during emerge. Consider the situation where root merges a few Java packages as part of a maintenance cycle, while a regular user (who may not have set their default VM) compiles a Java program which uses JNI. The /usr/include/jni.h seen by the user's compilation may flip between various possible jni.hs, making his program break in mysterious ways. Of course you can argue that this is an unlikely situation, but what if root stops the merge with a ctrl-C? Then the /usr/include/jni.h will be completely wrong, in this scheme. > What is espicially > bad about adding them with -I to CFLAGS? That would be the easiest way > to ensure we are using the jni.h we thought. It would also be better > if gjc did not install jni.h to /usr/include but that is an upstream > issue I think. As you pointed out yourself, some packages try to be smart and find the jni.h themselves. If they use something like if [ -x ${path}/jni.h ], putting an -I in CFLAGS won't help much, and the configure script will probably stop with an error. If the package tries to find the jni.h by compiling with various -I options, we may get lucky. The only remaining problem then is ensuring that we in fact do _not_ have a gcj-installed jni.h in /usr/include, since that may take precedence. -- Karl T -- firstname.lastname@example.com mailing list
Updated Jun 17, 2009
Summary: Archive of the gentoo-java mailing list.
Donate to support our development efforts.
Your browser does not support iframes.


text:
I don't have any "I" flowers blooming at this time (except daylilies, which I've been posting on the daylily forum). So I thought I'd post a couple pics of "In my gardens".
This is what happens when I don't deadhead, and let those seedheads stand all winter, then a couple years later I have waaaaaaaaay too many! Anybody who wants to come dig some for themselves .....feel free! Please share your photos! Julie |
Follow-Up Postings:
- Posted by janetpetiole 4b (My Page) on Fri, Jul 27, 07 at 7:43
In my garden - what a neat idea! Last year I started collecting plants for the shade bed and just planted them where there was room. This year I got a few more. It is going to be a lot of work to re-arrange the bed, but I can't wait to get started. This is the largest rock that will be going into the shade bed. The neighbors have black walnut trees so I can't plant most evergreens, which I love. Next year I will be making hypertufa troughs and attempt to keep the evergreens small. In the meantime, I found these boxes so I can indulge in my new obsession: mini evergreens. |
- Posted by luvtosharedivs 5a WI (My Page) on Fri, Jul 27, 07 at 9:27
- Posted by janetpetiole 4b (My Page) on Fri, Jul 27, 07 at 11:21
Nice shade bed, Julie! We are able to move the rock by either rolling it along the ground, or rolling it into what we call the rock sled and then sliding that along boards. The tricky part will be getting it positioned the right way in the hole. |
Beautiful pictures Julie, and Janet, I love the planter box! Here are my I plants: |
- Posted by luvtosharedivs 5a WI (My Page) on Mon, Jul 30, 07 at 13:40
Jen, your Hostas all look so pretty and healthy! I see your favorite forum is the Hosta forum, so you must have oodles of them! I started posting Hostas in the gallery of the Hosta forum when they first started with the alphabet, but couldn't keep up, because we had a terrible Microburst of a storm that left most of my Hostas in shreads, and a lot of them still look that way! I have Invincible, but not the other two. Thanks for showing your photos! Julie |
- Posted by janetpetiole 4b (My Page) on Mon, Jul 30, 07 at 17:28
Thanks Jen. The lettering on the side is attractive, don't you think? lol. I didn't notice the lettering until I posted the photo. I've been so enamored with the mini mugo pine that that is all I could see. |
- Posted by tsugajunkie 5a SE_WI (My Page) on Mon, Jul 30, 07 at 18:44
Janetpetiole- RE "...The neighbors have black walnut trees so I can't plant most evergreens..." Being a Tsuga junkie, I can say Eastern Hemlocks (Tsuga canadensis) can handle both the shade and the juglone of Black Walnuts. There are also some Chamaecyparis that might handle your zone 4b. I have both under Black Walnuts in my yard. Also, on the drip edge (and well within the root zone of the walnut) I have the following pines: White (Pinus strobus), Swiss (P. cembra), Japanese White (P. parviflora)and Japanese Red (P. densiflora)along with an Arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis). The walnuts also are my neighbors (I'm sandwiched between two of them)and in 20 years of trial and error I was surprised at how many conifers are not affected by them. tj |
- Posted by janetpetiole 4b (My Page) on Tue, Jul 31, 07 at 7:33
Last weekend, in the sunnier corner of the yard, and right by one of the walnuts, I planted it up with Emerald Green Arborvitae Sea Green Juniper Old Gold Juniper Sherwood Frost Arborvitae Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Filifera Sungold' I think that is the variety. The guy was really busy with other customers, so I can't be sure. Either way, it is a fantastic color. Pines - I thought juglone was deadly to pines. I give you credit for taking the risk. Although I rarely find black walnut roots when digging, I'm still afraid to take any chances with trees and slow growing shrubs. I didn't know about Eastern Hemlocks were resistant, or it is possible that I forgot. Such a pretty tree. Any dwarf varieties? |
- Posted by tsugajunkie 5a SE_WI (My Page) on Tue, Jul 31, 07 at 17:04
Hemlocks have many dwarf and a few miniature varieties. I have Jervis, Lewis, Dawson, Bennett, Cappies Choice and Geneva (will get to 15 feet in, oh, 75 years). Two miniatures I have are Popaleski (spelled different ways) and Cloud Prune. Walnuts don't bother hemlocks in the least. The Conifer Forum was discussing White pines and juglone recently and had several examples of it not being a problem and I recall no examples of problems. Mine have been there for anywhere from 5 to 8 years. Shade is more of an issue with them than juglone, for me at least. tj |
Please Note: Only registered members are able to post messages to this forum. If you are a member, please log in. If you aren't yet a member, join now!
Return to the Wisconsin Forum
Information about Posting
- You must be logged in to post a message. Once you are logged in, a posting window will appear at the bottom of the messages. If you are not a member, please register for an account.
- Please review our Rules of Play before posting.
- Posting is a two-step process. Once you have composed your message, you will be taken to the preview page. You will then have a chance to review your post, make changes and upload photos.
- After posting your message, you may need to refresh the forum page in order to see it.
- Before posting copyrighted material, please read about Copyright and Fair Use.
- We have a strict no-advertising policy!
- If you would like to practice posting or uploading photos, please visit our Test forum.
- If you need assistance, please Contact Us and we will be happy to help.
Learn more about in-text links on this page here


text:
PARIS - The French premier on Tuesday announced tightened controls on immigration, part of his government's response to the country's worst civil unrest in four decades.
Authorities will increase enforcement of requirements that immigrants seeking 10-year residency permits or French citizenship master the French language and integrate into society, Dominique de Villepin said.
France also plans to crack down on fraudulent marriages that some immigrants use to acquire residency rights and launch a stricter screening process for foreign students, Villepin said.
Anti-racism groups widely opposed the measures, saying that greater government scrutiny of immigrants could stir up racism and racist acts.
Both Villepin and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy have announced law-and-order measures since the rioting broke out this month in depressed suburbs where many immigrants live. The two - both members of President Jacques Chirac's conservative party - are expected to run for president in 2007, and both want to appear firm in response to the violence and France's broader social problems.
Marriages celebrated abroad between French people and foreigners will no longer be automatically recognized in France, Villepin said. Consulates must screen couples first before foreign partners can be granted French identity papers, he said.
"It's not an attempt to undermine the right to marry, but to check that all the conditions for a true marriage are in place," Villepin said, adding that the measure would be proposed to parliament in the first half of 2006.
The prime minister also said the government should have the ability to enforce a law outlawing polygamy. There are 8,000-15,000 polygamous families in France, according to official figures.
Some French officials cited polygamy as one reason that youths from underprivileged immigrant households joined the rioting - a suggestion that outraged opposition politicians and human rights groups. They warned against fanning racism and anti-Muslim sentiment.
New restrictions on marriages would send the wrong signal, anti-racism activists said.
"This measure will make everyone suspicious of any marriage between a French citizen and a foreigner," said Assane Fall, of the anti-racism group SOS Racisme. "Does the government want to suppress the possibility of mixed marriages?"
The government's controls were "shortsighted" and could result in turning France against its immigrants, said Mouloud Aounit of anti-racist group MRAP.
The civil unrest broke out Oct. 27 near Paris and spread throughout France. While promising to ease unemployment for youths and fight racial discrimination, the conservative government also promised tighter controls on crime and immigration.
About 50,000 foreign students come to France each year to study. Foreign students will be screened in their home countries by centers run by officials from France's Education Ministry, Villepin said.
"We want to channel our efforts to receive the best students, the most motivated, those who have a high-level study project," he said.
The French president said two weeks ago that France also must be stricter in enforcing regulations that govern whether immigrants can move their spouses and children to France.
The government plans to propose a law next year covering legal immigrants who want to move their families to France. Villepin said immigrants should wait at least two years before they can apply, an increase from the current one year.


text:
WPDFD Issue #62 - May 01, 2003
Last month I demonstrated how I could convert the editorial page into a CSS-only layout and in doing so, used a variation of the usual WPDFD house-style. I had lots of comments, and thanks to all who took the trouble to write, but the consensus was pretty much half and half with no overwhelming preference one way or the other. Some asked why I was changing at all and others thought the new look was a positive step forward.
Anybody with a computer and a graphics program can produce Web graphics at the push of a button. Computers have made it easy to do things that trained graphic artists could have taken years to master – lettering, airbrushing, photo retouching and painting with a vast range of traditional and non-traditional techniques. In taking these shortcuts, many of the underlying principles behind graphic design have been bypassed and the results are not as potent as they could be.
Have you ever looked at a wall of television sets in a store, all tuned to the same channel and showing the same program? No doubt you will have noticed that each television shows the picture slightly differently and perhaps the idea crossed your mind, "I wonder which one is right?" Well, they can't all be right! Computer monitors are the same except you very rarely get a chance to see so many side by side and showing the same Web page.
As I mentioned in the introduction, older browser that don't understand CSS-P are on their way out but some people hang onto them like comfortable old shoes. As they were introduced when CSS was in its infancy, they know about some style features but not others. The rest of this site works just fine in Netscape 4.x because I've used tables for layout and the style sheet only provides the type specs.


text:
RHOM: Joanna Slept With Joe Francis?
The model gets a blast from the past, and he's dressed in his undies. Awkward!
We can't say we're shocked by much on reality TV anymore, but two things really surprised us in last night's episode of The Real Housewives of Miami.
First, Joe Francis — yes, that Joe Francis, the icky perv responsible for all the Girls Gone Wild videos — is still around. And two: He's friends with Lea Black, who proudly trotted him to Lisa Hochstein's lingerie fundraiser party, which was the focal point of Thursday's show. Are we the only ones surprised by this? Lea seems like such a snooty stick in the mud, we can't imagine her being all buddy-buddy with someone who films drunken, college girl bi-curious encounters and wet t-shirt contests for a living.
Still, Lea continued to be boring and let Francis stir up a ruckus at the panty party.
Dressed in boxer briefs and a silk robe, Francis bragged to some of the other 'wives that he bedded Joanna Krupa AND her sister, Marta, back in the day. Karent Sierra practically sprinted over to Joanna to tell her the news, and Joanna, who is no stranger to drunken flip-out sessions, called him a 'sicko' and 'disgusting.'
Romain just stood by and let it happen, because hey, at least she wasn't embarrassing the crap out of him at his job.
In other haps, the battle lines continued to be drawn, with all the Housewives hating on Karent. Karent apparently talked smack about the other 'wives in a newspaper, calling them all classless fame whores, "Botox brains" and the like, which made them angry enough to try and furrow their brows. But, they couldn't because of the Botox and all, so they just ripped on her instead.
Joanna, who is a PETA activist, became extremely upset when Marysol arrived wearing a white fur over her nightgown, and Adriana and Alexia were also still steaming over their encounter with Karent from last week. But in the next episode — on a special night, this Sunday at 10 p.m. — the shiznit's gonna go down. Based on the previews, people get pushed in pools, Adriana could possibly smack Joanna. It'll be like WWE, but with less resilient outfits. We can't wait!
One last thing: If you're working on your diet plan, watch the segment from last night where Joanna poses for a PETA campaign with a huge, fake bush pouring out of her tiny panties. You probably won't be hungry for at least a week after. Here's a pic to whet (curb?) your appetite. Inquiring minds want to know: Is Romain's forest that big?


text:
Office Depot HQ Gets an AV Makeover
When Office Depot called on architecture firm HOK to design its new global headquarters in BocaRaton, Fla., collaboration was a priority. From the low-height cubicle walls to the open layouts of glass and windows, the company wanted everything, including upscale amenities and all the installed AV, to adhere to a single overall theme.
CHALLENGE: Create a collaborative corporate space that will make the client more productive, while adhering to a strict schedule.
SOLUTION: Work around the clock, come up with creative ideas, and build in enough AV that the client appreciates its value to the company.
When Office Depot called on architecture firm HOK to design its new global headquarters in BocaRaton, Fla., collaboration was a priority. From the low-height cubicle walls to the open layouts of glass and windows, the company wanted everything, including upscale amenities and all the installed AV, to adhere to a single overall theme.
In Office Depot's executive boardroom, Xerox AV installed Sharp LCDs to each side of the main screen and a full Polycom videoconferencing system.
Credit: Barry Grossman Photography
"This was to be our global headquarters, so we wanted make sure we had state-of-the-art AV capabilities," says Joe Brink, senior consultant of global IT, infrastructure planning, and architecture for Office Depot. "[Our CEO] was looking for that 'wow' factor."
After completing the design, AV consultant EDI brought in Norcross, Ga.-based Xerox Audio Visual Solutions (operating then as Southern Business Communications) to integrate the systems and make them work within the facility's architecture. "We came in sort of late," admits Rachel Weller, project manager of Xerox AV. "All the trades were saying, 'Where have you been? We've got to get going.'" Yet one of the most challenging parts of the project, Weller says, was collaborating with the multiple trades on the multimillion-dollar project and adhering to the general contractor's strict schedule. "A lot of our conduit wasn't there because, unfortunately, you've got the AV set of drawings and then you've got the architectuals, and a lot of them didn't match up," Weller adds. "Nothing had really been coordinated with all the trades."
Xerox AV joined the project in February 2008 with a November 2008 deadline. "Everybody was under the same type of requirement," says Ralph Evans, associate for construction administration at HOK. Evans says no one was brought in ahead of time because of how quickly the project was moving: What a contractor saw one week might not necessarily be there the next. By the time Xerox AV began working with EDI's plans, the builders already were placing drywall. With nine months to work and more than 200 conference rooms, two security command centers, a cafeteria, training rooms, and an auditorium to equip, Xerox AV hit the ground running.
The 630,000-square-foot compound is made up of three five-story buildings–north, south, and center–connected by two lobbies, one for guests and one for employees. The north visitor lobby is near the vendor conference area with its 200 small, medium, and large conference rooms. Office Depot bought Sharp Aquos displays directly from the manufacturer for use throughout the facility, which helped keep the project under budget. "For consumer displays, they've done really well," says Weller.
One large vendor conference room on the first floor includes a Panasonic PTDW5000-U projector, a 123-inch diagonal Draper Acces V drop-down screen, and Polycom HDX9002 videoconferencing codec. Xerox AV stacked 52-inch Sharp Aquos displays on one side of the screen and a Sony EVID-100 camera mounted to the side. The idea was to create a more casual, intimate angle for conferencing than if the camera were mounted above the displays.
All of the conference rooms use Crestron TPMC-17 touch panels to control the AV, Biamp Nexia TC audio processors, and Shure microphones. Outside each room in the three-building campus–238 in all–there is a panel running Crestron's RoomView room management system. The software links to Office Depot's Microsoft Outlook calendar software, allowing employees to schedule a meeting in a specific room from either their desktop computers or at the panel outside the conference room.
Office Depot's new executive boardroom employs much of the same technology found in the vendor conference room, but required a little remodeling to accommodate the gear. A Draper rear-projection screen was too large to fit in the freight elevator and had to be lowered into the fifth-floor room by crane. And because boardroom construction was nearly complete, a portion of the external wall had to be removed and rebuilt to actually get the screen into the room. Behind it would eventually be a Christie rear-projection three-chip DLP DW5K in a Draper mirrored enclosure.
A pair of 52-inch Sharp Aquos displays hang on either side of the screen, and a Sony EVID-100 camera and eight Crown MB-1 microphones built into the conference table facilitate Polycom-based videoconferencing. Xerox AV chose an Extron Crosspoint 450 128HVA matrix switcher to route signals.
The security command center is located in the campus's center building. The command center includes five 52-inch Sharp Aquos displays on Chief PST2458 mounts. They're connected to Office Depot's security system and have the ability to monitor any of its stores around the world, as well as areas at itsheadquarters, such as parking garages. Next to the command center is what the company calls its war room, where Brink says IT and security teams use five 65-inch Sharp Aquos displays to monitor network security as well as any number of emergency situations, from hurricanes to computer virus threats. "The building's Category-5 rated [for hurricanes]," says Brink. "This would be a good place for rescue divisions to operate from."
The USGBC's lighting control touch panels (top) were considered harder to use than the AV button controls (bottom, on the wall) that AVS installed.
Credit: Courtesy Audio Video Systems
Digital signage was an important part of Office Depot's vision of a collaborative environment. The company has its own small production studio and wanted a way to distribute word about company news and events. There are 30 52-inch Sharp Aquos LCDs installed throught the building for signage purposes. Each is recessed in a glass enclosure in the wall and connected via HDMI to a Cisco digital media player. HD content is pushed over the network and controlled using RS-232, displaying the information about other Office Depot brand companies or Tony Stewart's latest NASCAR performance.
"It's a combination of text, ticker, and video," says Brink. "We have our up-to-the-minute, what's-happening-at-Office-Depot information there, and any special campaigns going on."
But according to Weller, the crowning jewel is the headquarters' auditorium, which seats nearly 2,800 and features a 25-foot Draper Cineperm screen above its stage. Office Depot wanted the room to serve as a multipurpose space that the company could share with the community. Flexibility was key, but it wasn't easy to accomplish. One of the many snags in the auditorium involved the subwoofers. "They were going to be recessed into the front of the stage," says Weller. "We got there and the stage was a solid concrete rectangle; they forgot to make provisions for the subwoofers."
In addition, EDI originally envisioned some of the the loudspeakers flying from the ceiling ampitheater-style, but Weller says the architect wanted a different look. Xerox AV solved the subwoofer and loudspeaker issues by working with HOK's Evans to install the eight JBL AC2212/64 loudspeakers and the three JBL ASB6128 subwoofers in the two columns on either side of the stage, covered with an acoustic cloth grille.
Still, the room's challenges didn't end there. The auditorium's ceiling, which was designed as a series of tiers that step down from the back of the room toward the stage, had to accommodate can lights, strip lights, 40 loudspeakers, and a Christie Roadster HDK18 projector. "Those tiles are very thin and they do not support any weight, so every speaker had to be supported by the roof deck at the top," says Weller. "With so much going on, it was very hard to get a clear shot straight up to the concrete of the ceiling." Xerox AV was able to use the steps to its advantage, encasing the Christie projector in one tier and a Polycom Eagle Eye HD camera in the tier behind it.
On stage is a knee wall with three teleprompter displays that Office Depot repurposed from its previous headquarters. The original design called for a rectangular-shaped wall, which would have made the displays hard to see, so Xerox AV sketched an angled design for the architect, who agreed to alter the plans.
Office Depot's headquarters was nearly complete by the November 2008 deadline, and the company began moving in. Unexpected furniture delays, which impacted placement of AV equipment, did cause Xerox AV to extend its stay. "We were working around room schedules," says Weller. "We actually ended up switching to night work in November because they had moved in and we were still working on rooms."
But Office Depot proved an understanding client. "[Xerox AV] was good at coordination," says Brink. "I had no idea how tough a job it was [going to be]."
The long hours of collaboration paid off. The state-of-the-art headquarters and multipurpose auditorium will benefit the company in the long run. "This is a huge opportunity for us because we used to travel to different places at quite a big expense," says Brink. "This facility has enough AV capability that we can do true corporate, high-impact events."


text:
Product Description
The Smok Magneto Mod celebrity nude is a stylish telescopic mechanical mod. With clean lines, functional design and a magnetic bottom fire button that's lockable. If you're in the market for a new mech mod, the choice has just been made simple for you.
Smok Magneto Mod specs:
- Telescopic for 18*** series batteries
- Lockable bottom switch, magnet technology
- Copper pins, non-adjustable
- Stainless Steel body
- 510 connection
- < 1v voltage loss
- Dimensions: Width = 21mm, Length (18350 mode) = 85mm, Length (18650 mode) = 115mm
Price is for the Smok Magneto Mod body only. Batteries sold separately in store.
Manufactured by: SMOK
Main Features:
1)Detachable,can be fit on 18350 and 18650 battery
3) A spider on the end cap, looks luxury and beautiful
4) Good design,high quality,low price
5) magneto switch and connetor , lock is very easy
Production Description
Smart electronics cigarette mod-New eletrical product Magnetic vaporizer Smoktech Magnetto–Smoktech Magnetic button mod,18350-18650
full mechanical forever mod The main features of this mod is the magnetic push button, we have adopted the character of the magnet, like
poles repel and opposite poles attract. the push button is structured with 2 magnet inside with like poles facing to each other to achieve
the same effect of traditional mechanical spring gives. As time the you use ,the flexibility of the spring will decrease, but the magnetism
of the magnet will not run out in normal condition. thus the life span of the Smoktech Magneto mod will be much longer than the Mod
with traditional mechanical spring button.


text: TigerDirect offers the Toshiba 2TB Serial ATA 6Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive, model no. HDKPC09, for $79.99. Coupon code "FYM152071" cuts it to $64.99. With free shipping, that's $5 under our mention from last fall and the best price we've seen. (It's also a current low by $5.) It features a 64MB cache and runs at 7200 rpm. Coupon expires January 30.


text:
06/06/14Step Back in TimeVisit Fairburn for a taste of the 16th century at the 29th annual Georgia Renaissance Festival. June 7 and 8 make up the last weekend of this year's event, which features skilled artisans, strolling minstrels, mead, turkey legs, jousting, Maypole dancing and more. Increasingly, it has become a "cosplay" event, with the visitors sometimes out-costuming the professionals. For more information see http://www.garenfest.com/ Posted at 07:35 PM | Permalink |
06/03/14Pack Your Cannons – Sherman's Coming Again!One hundred fifty years ago this month, Union and Confederate forces faced off across Cobb County in battles large and small, including Kennesaw Mountain, one of the most important battles of the Atlanta Campaign. A number of commemorative events are happening in the Cobb area this month, and events continue in Georgia over the next year as the Civil War sesquicentennial winds down. Learn more about the Civil War in Georgia in this month's feature stories. And find information about everything from reenactments, tours and ceremonies to musical performances, educational opportunities and lists of Civil War sites at the following websites. The Atlanta Campaign Atlanta History Center B*ATL Battle of Kennesaw Mountain 150th Anniversary Civil War Trust Civil... Posted at 03:09 PM | Permalink |
05/30/14Spotted in Georgia, Peach Season!Have you had a peach today? Spotted at Jaemor Farms, Alto, Ga. Posted at 08:40 PM | Permalink |
05/27/14BeltLine Receives International AwardLast week, the Atlanta BeltLine was awarded the Prix d 'Excellence Award by the International Real Estate Federation for best environmental rehabilitation project in the world. The award highlighted the organization's work on the Historic Fourth Ward Park, which was once a barren, contaminated site, but today is a vibrant part of the community that craftily incorporates flood protection and stormwater overflow solutions; the 2.25-mile Eastside Trail, a former abandoned heavy freight rail corridor that is now a ribbon of parkland and trails; and the city's first public skatepark and nearby athletic fields, a hot gathering spot for skaters, athletes and families. Congratulations to Atlanta's BeltLine! Posted at 03:25 PM | Permalink |
05/23/14Making ConnectionsWe all know about the problems facing the Metro Atlanta region – job growth, transportation, housing, transportation, the economy, transportation, education and, you guessed it, transportation … . So, what can an Atlanta Regional Commission led trip to Philadelphia – the 18th such LINK (Leadership, Involvement, Networking, Knowledge) trip to different cities around the country by Atlanta-area business, government and nonprofit leaders – teach us about how to address our problems and take advantage of our opportunities? At first glance, it would seem that the Philadelphia region faces even greater challenges than Atlanta when trying to come together to solve region-wide problems. The area is made up not just of cities and counties with their... Posted at 07:25 AM | Permalink |


text:
Smothers Mothers
Diane Keaton's career needs to be taken into protective custody until its owner comes to her senses and stops buggin'. Keaton's rattle-brained antics as the meddling, overprotective, flibbertigibbet mother in Because I Said So were the kind of one-off miscalculation any actor might make over the course of a career, but in Smother, shown last night on Lifetime cable, she was even more mannered, cutesy, mumsy, arms-flailing, and sputtery--oh, what a ghastly turn her talent has taken. So this is what Annie Hall matured into: a blithering buttinsky. There was even a scene in which Keaton's mom made an awkward spectacle of herself at a karaoke bar, such a far pitiful cry from her sweet inner stillness in the cabaret scene in Annie Hall, singing "Seems Like Old Times" under a simple spotlight. Smother, an uncomfortable mixture of deadpan farce and creaky slapstick, had Keaton as a mother who moves in with her son (Dax Shepard, who's like an unfinished, facially numbed fascimile of Zach Braff) and his wife (Liv Tyler, downmarketing herself yet again), making her screen entrance in a Halloween costume--a giant pumpkin--to signal that she's quite the eccentric. But even being eccentric doesn't explain or justify dialogue such as her announcement at a diner that "Normally I don't like black movies, except for Gone with the Wind," adding, "I like The Jeffersons too." WTF? And later, after Keaton is hired at the same carpet store where her son works (so that non-hilarious mother-son hijinks can ensue), she's so inept and ditzy that she had to be fired, the store manager snorting, "She's the worst Caucasian employee we've ever had." Didn't anyone connected with this project recognize how racist that is? It didn't jump out of the script and wave a little warning flag? Then there was the smarmy sex euphemisms, as when Liv asks Dax (these names) through the bathroom door, while the shower water's running, whether he's playing "soapy worm" again, and the father (Ken Howard, formerly the White Shadow, oh it's so sad) referring to his testicles as, I hope I'm quoting this phrase correctly, salty prune sacks. Yes, it was quite the inspirational Saturday evening on Lifetime.
It doesn't take constant snooping, swooping supervision to qualify as a smothering parent--sometimes it just takes cruel words interspersed over time to create a toxic cloud that can follow a child into adulthood. In the winter issue of Shenandoah is a memoir by Joyce Davis called "Ugly" that's--well, if I were a judge for one of those Best Nonfiction or Best Memoir anthologies, this candid, funny, astute, unpretentious, nicely paced personal essay would be on the short list, and nobody would give no sass about it either. "Ugly" is about growing up unattractive, and being made to feel grotesque:
It's not something you can talk about. There are no support groups. The modern workplace offers no reasonable accommodation to the beauty-challenged. On the contrary, everywhere you look there are remedies for sale. The message is clear: Unattractiveness has been reclassified from an act of God to a personal choice. Funny, because I don't remember making that choice... I only remember feeling responsible for it. "You can't shine shit," my father used to say (only occasionally about me), and I concluded early on that it was simplest to agree. I learned to wear dark, appropriate clothes and modest jewelry, to have a decent but nondescript haircut, to keep myself tidy...
While her father espoused pithy maxims about unshineable shit, her mother was more deflatingly specific, telling her daughter that having children will never been an issue for her--"I asked her why she thought that. 'Well, she said, her eyes anywhere but on my face, 'look at you'"--and informing her, during a college visit on Parents' Weekend, that the reason she was so initially subdued was, "I just--you'll have to forgive me--I just forgot how fat you are. It sort of took my breath away." Which prompts Davis's roommate to ask later, "Does she always talk to you like that, or does she save it up for special occasions?"
"But why did you believe [your mother]?" friends and the occasional lover have asked. "Why didn't you just tell her where to get off? Surely you realized she was handing you a line?"
I've spent years trying to answer that question, and I can't. For one thing, she wasn't completely wrong. The ugly duckling sometimes grows up to be an ugly duck. I grew up taunted and, later, ignored by most of my peers. I didn't need a double-blind study to convince me that most people were not thrilled with what they saw when they looked at me.
The passages I've quoted may make "Ugly" sound maudlin, but it's not, it comes to a beautiful finish, and it's worth searching out Shenandoah at newsstands and bookstores that carry literary quarterlies (the piece isn't online), or subscribing. That same issue has a story by James Lee Burke--yes, the creator of the Dave Robicheaux mystery series; the very same dude--that's a real grabber.