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Recently I brought a new iMac for my home development, music, movies, games and general play things. For work I develop Web Applications and with my ISP I have a static IP address, so I decided to set up a small testing webserver. Since Apple has built in PHP and Apache2, this was pretty much a couple simple steps.
I used my post about Installing PHP5 and mySQL on Mac OSX Leopard to recompile PHP and mySQL, then I started setting up my Virtual Hosts.
Heres what I did from a fresh Install of Leopard;
Step One: Enable Apache Web Sharing
Open your System Preferences, then Select the Sharing option.
Enable the Web Sharing checkbox.
Step 2: Install PHP and mySQL
Download and install PHP 5 and mySQL 5 and install using my guide @ Installing PHP5 and mySQL on Mac OSX Leopard.
Step 3: Enable Virtual Hosts
Next you have to tell apache that we are going to use 'Virtual Hosts' and not just the default document server.
I am going to explain how to edit this in TextMate, but if you don't use TextMate ( and why not? ) in a later post I can explain how to use Terminal and PICO to do the changes.
Open TextMate, and go to teh file menu, and select Open…
Check the Show Hidden Files checkbox and navigate to
and select the httpd.conf file.
Now if you press the Apple ( Command ) + L kets which will bring up the Go to Line dialog box. Go to line 465.
You will see the Virtual Hosts Include line.
Remove the # so that the file will now be included when Apache runs.
# Virtual hosts
Include /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf
Save and close the file. You will be asked for your password.
Step 4: Create your Virtual Hosts
Still in TextMate go to the File Menu and Select Open…. This time you want to navigate to the Virtual Hosts file.
The first line to edit in this file is to remove the :80 on the NameVirtualHost *:80.
NameVirtualHost *:80
NameVirtualHost *
For each site you you are going to be serving, you need to add a VirtualHost block.
ServerAdmin email@example.com
DocumentRoot "/Library/WebServer/Documents/mysite.com"
ServerName mysite.com
ServerAlias www.mysite.com
ErrorLog "/Library/WebServer/logs/mysite.com_error"
CustomLog "/Library/WebServer/logs/mysite.com_access" common
ServerAdmin firstname.lastname@example.com
DocumentRoot "/Library/WebServer/Documents/mysite2.com"
ServerName mysite2.com
ServerAlias www.mysite2.com
ErrorLog "/Library/WebServer/logs/mysite2.com_error"
CustomLog "/Library/WebServer/logs/mysite2.com_access" common
ServerAdmin firstname.lastname@example.com
DocumentRoot "/Library/WebServer/Documents/mysite3.com"
ServerName mysite3.com
ServerAlias www.mysite3.com
ErrorLog "/Library/WebServer/logs/mysite3.com_error"
CustomLog "/Library/WebServer/logs/mysite3.com_access" common
Save this file, using your Admin Password.
Step 5: Restart Apache
Now we need to restart the Apache Web Server, you can do this the same as Step 1, disable Web Sharing then re-enable it.
Virtual Hosting Summary
Now you should be able to host more than one domain successfully on your Mac. Things to note are you must be pointing the A Record for your domain DNS Records to your IP Address, and you must point port 80 of your Router or internet gateway to your Mac Internal IP address, I would recommend. using a static Internal IP Address for this machine.


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Alternate history or alternative history is a subgenre of speculative fiction (or science fiction) and historical fiction that is set in a world in which history has diverged from the actual history of the world. Alternate history literature asks the question, "What if history had developed differently?" Most works in this genre are based on real historical events, yet feature social, geopolitical, or industrial circumstances that developed differently than our own. While to some extent all fiction can be described as "alternate history," the subgenre proper comprises fiction in which a change or point of divergence occurs in the past that causes human society to develop in a way that is distinct from our own.
Since the 1950s, this type of fiction has to a large extent merged with science fictional tropes involving cross-time travel between alternate histories or psychic awareness of the existence of "our" universe by the people in another; or ordinary voyaging uptime or downtime that results in history splitting into two or more timelines. Cross-time, time-splitting and alternate history themes have become so closely interwoven that it is impossible to discuss them fully apart from one another.
In French, alternate history novels are called uchronie. This neologism is based on the prefix u- (as in the word utopia, a place that does not exist) and the Greek for time, chronos. An uchronie, then, is defined as a time that does not exist, a "non-time". Another occasionally-used term for the genre is "allohistory" (lit. "other history").
The 1490 epic romance "Tirant lo Blanc", written when the loss of Constantinople to the Turks was still a recent and traumatic memory to Christian Europe, tells the story of the valiant knight Tirant The White from Brittany who gets to the embattled remnant of the Byzantine Empire, becomes a Megaduke and commander of its armies, and manages to fight off the invading Ottoman armies of Mehmet II, save the city from Islamic conquest, and even chase the Turks deeper into lands they had conquered before.
The first novel-length alternate history in English would seem to be Castello Holford's Aristopia (1895). While not as nationalistic as Louis Geoffroy's Napoléon et la conquête du monde, 1812–1823, Aristopia is another attempt to portray a utopian society. In Aristopia, the earliest settlers in Virginia discover a reef made of solid gold and are able to build a Utopian society in North America.
One of the entries in Squire's volume was Churchill's "If Lee Had Not Won the Battle of Gettysburg", written from the viewpoint of a historian in a world where the Confederacy had won the American Civil War, considering what would have happened if the North had been victorious (in other words, a character from an alternate world imagining a world more like the real one we live in, although not necessarily getting all the details right). This kind of speculative work which posts from the point of view of an alternate history is variously known as a "recursive alternate history", a "double-blind what-if" or an "alternate-alternate history".
Another example of alternate history from this period (and arguably the first to explicitly posit cross-time travel from one universe to another as anything more than a visionary experience) is H.G. Wells' Men Like Gods (1923) in which several Englishmen are transferred via an accidental encounter with a cross-time machine into an alternate universe featuring a seemingly pacifistic and utopian Britain. When the Englishmen, led by a satiric figure based on Winston Churchill, try to seize power, the utopians simply point a ray gun at them and send them on to someone else's universe. Wells describes a multiverse of alternative worlds, complete with the paratime travel machines that would later become popular with U.S. pulp writers, but since his hero experiences only a single alternate world this story is not very different from conventional alternate history.
The 1930s would see alternate history move into a new arena. The December 1933 issue of Astounding published Nat Schachner's "Ancestral Voices," quickly followed by Murray Leinster's "Sidewise in Time". While earlier alternate histories examined reasonably straight-forward divergences, Leinster attempted something completely different. In his "world gone mad", pieces of Earth traded places with their analogs from different timelines. The story follows Professor Minott and his students from the fictitious Robinson College as they wander through analogs of worlds that followed a different history.
This period also saw the publication of the time travel novel Lest Darkness Fall by L. Sprague de Camp where an American academic to the Italy of the Ostrogoths at the time of the Byzantine invasion led by Belisarius. De Camp's work is concerned with the historical changes wrought by his time traveler, Martin Padway, thereby making the work an alternate history. Padway is depicted as making permanent changes and implicitly forming a new time branch.
Time travel as the cause of a point of divergence (creating two histories where before there was one, or simply replacing the future that existed before the time traveling event) has continued to be a popular theme: in Bring the Jubilee, by Ward Moore, the protagonist, who lives in an alternate history in which the South won the Civil War, travels through time and brings about a Union victory in the Battle of Gettysburg.
When a story's assumptions about the nature of time travel lead to the complete replacement of the visited time's future rather than just the creation of an additional time line, the device of a "time patrol" is often used. Such an agency has the grim task of saving civilization every day, every hour, with patrol members—depicted most notably in Poul Anderson's "Time Patrol"—racing uptime and downtime to preserve the "correct" history. This is eventually revealed to be the one in which humanity transforms itself into a benevolent super-species that, amongst other achievements, creates time travel to ensure its own existence.
This can lead to terrible moral dilemmas. In Delenda Est, the interference of time-travelling outlaws causes Carthage to win the Second Punic War and destroy Rome. As a result, there is a completely different Twentieth Century — "not better or worse, just completely different". The hero, Patrol Agent Manse Everard, must return to that period, fight the outlaws and change history back, restoring his (and our) familiar history — but only at the price of totally destroying the world which has taken its place, and which is equally deserving of existence. The stakes are the highest imaginable: billions of lives balanced against other billions of lives, for one man to decide. "Risking your neck in order to negate a world full of people like yourself" is how the hero describes what he eventually undertakes.
Also in the late 1940s and the 1950s, however, writers such as H. Beam Piper, Sam Merwin, Jr. and Andre Norton wrote thrillers set in a multiverse in which all alternate histories are co-existent and travel between them occurs via a technology involving portals and/or paratime capsules. These authors established the convention of a secret paratime trading empire that exploits and/or protects worlds lacking the paratime technology via a network of James Bond-style secret agents (Piper called them the "paratime police").
This concept provided a convenient framing for packing a smorgasbord of historical alternatives (and even of timeline "branches") into a single novel, either via the hero chasing or being chased by the villain(s) through multiple worlds or (less artfully) via discussions between the paratime cops and their superiors (or between paratime agents and new recruits) regarding the histories of such worlds.
The paratime theme is sometimes used without the police; Poul Anderson dreamed up the Old Phoenix tavern as a nexus between alternate histories. A character from a modern American alternate history Operation Chaos can thus appear in the English Civil War setting of A Midsummer's Tempest. In this context, the distinction between an alternate history and a parallel universe with some points in common but no common history may not be feasible, as the writer may not provide enough information to distinguish.
Paratime thrillers published in recent decades often cite the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics (first formulated by Hugh Everett III in 1957) to account for the differing worlds. Some science fiction writers interpret the splitting of worlds to depend on human decision-making and free will, while others rely on the butterfly effect from chaos theory to amplify random differences at the atomic or subatomic level into a macroscopic divergence at some specific point in history; either way, science fiction writers usually have all changes flow from a particular historical point of divergence (often abbreviated 'POD' by fans of the genre). Prior to Everett, science-fiction writers drew on higher dimensions and the speculations of P. D. Ouspensky to explain their characters' cross-time journeys.
While many justifications for alternate histories involve a multiverse, the "many world" theory would naturally involve many worlds, in fact a continually exploding array of universes. In quantum theory, new worlds would proliferate with every quantum event, and even if the writer uses human decisions, every decision that could be made differently would result in a different timeline. A writer's fictional multiverse may, in fact, preclude some decisions as humanly impossible, as when, in Night Watch, Terry Pratchett depicts a character informing Vimes that while anything that can happen, has happened, nevertheless there is no history whatsoever in which Vimes has ever murdered his wife. When the writer explicitly maintains that all possible decisions are made in all possible ways, one possible conclusion is that the characters were neither brave, nor clever, nor skilled, but simply lucky enough to happen on the universe in which they did not choose the cowardly route, take the stupid action, fumble the crucial activity, etc.; few writers focus on this idea, although it has been explored in stories such as Larry Niven's All the Myriad Ways, where the reality of all possible universes leads to an epidemic of suicide and crime because people conclude their choices have no moral import.
In any case, even if it is true that every possible outcome occurs in some world, it can still be argued that traits such as bravery and intelligence might still affect the relative frequency of worlds in which better or worse outcomes occurred (even if the total number of worlds with each type of outcome is infinite, it is still possible to assign a different measure to different infinite sets). The physicist David Deutsch, a strong advocate of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, has argued along these lines, saying that "By making good choices, doing the right thing, we thicken the stack of universes in which versions of us live reasonable lives. When you succeed, all the copies of you who made the same decision succeed too. What you do for the better increases the portion of the multiverse where good things happen." This view is perhaps somewhat too abstract to be explored directly in science fiction stories, but a few writers have tried, such as Greg Egan in his short story The Infinite Assassin, where an agent is trying to contain reality-scrambling "whirlpools" that form around users of a certain drug, and the agent is constantly trying to maximize the consistency of behavior among his alternate selves, attempting to compensate for events and thoughts he experiences but he guesses are of low measure relative to those experienced by most of his other selves.
Many writers — perhaps the majority — avoid the discussion entirely. In one novel of this type, H. Beam Piper's Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, a Pennsylvania State Police officer, who knows how to make gunpowder, is transported from our world to an alternate universe where the recipe for gunpowder is a tightly held secret and saves a country that is about to be conquered by its neighbors. The paratime patrol members are warned against going into the timelines immediately surrounding it, where the country will be overrun, but the book never depicts the slaughter of the innocent thus entailed, remaining solely in the timeline where the country is saved.
The cross-time theme was further developed in the 1960s by Keith Laumer in the first three volumes of his Imperium sequence, which would be completed in Zone Yellow (1990). Piper's politically more sophisticated variant was adopted and adapted by Michael Kurland and Jack Chalker in the 1980s; Chalker's G.O.D. Inc trilogy (1987–89), featuring paratime detectives Sam and Brandy Horowitz, marks the first attempt at merging the paratime thriller with the police procedural. Kurland's Perchance (1988), the first volume of the never completed "Chronicles of Elsewhen", presents a multiverse of secretive cross-time societies that utilize a variety of means for cross-time travel, ranging from high-tech capsules to mutant powers. Harry Turtledove has launched the Crosstime Traffic series for teenagers featuring a variant of H. Beam Piper's paratime trading empire.
The concept of a cross-time version of a world war, involving rival paratime empires, was developed in Fritz Leiber's Change War series, starting with the Hugo Award winning The Big Time (1958); followed by Richard C. Meredith's Timeliner trilogy in the 1970s, Michael McCollum's A Greater Infinity (1982) and John Barnes' Timeline Wars trilogy in the 1990s.
Such "paratime" stories may include speculation that the laws of nature can vary from one universe to the next, providing a science fictional explanation—or veneer—for what is normally fantasy. Aaron Allston's Doc Sidhe and Sidhe Devil take place between our world, the "grim world" and an alternate "fair world" where the Sidhe retreated to. Although technology is clearly present in both worlds, and the "fair world" parallels our history, about fifty years out of step, there is functional magic in the fair world. Even with such explanation, the more explicitly the alternate world resembles a normal fantasy world, the more likely the story is to be labeled fantasy, as in Poul Anderson's "House Rule" and "Loser's Night."
In both science fiction and fantasy, whether a given parallel universe is an alternate history may not be clear. The writer might allude to a POD only to explain the existence and make no use of the concept, or may present the universe without explanation to its existence.
It was followed by Vladimir Nabokov's Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle (1969), a story of incest that takes place within an alternate North America settled in part by Czarist Russia, and that borrows from Dick's idea of "alternate-alternate" history (the world of Nabokov's hero is wracked by rumors of a "counter-earth" that apparently is ours). Some critics believe that the references to a counter-earth suggest that the world portrayed in Ada is a delusion in the mind of the hero (another favorite theme of Dick's novels). Strikingly, the characters in Ada seem to acknowledge their own world as the copy or negative version, calling it "Anti-Terra" while its mythical twin is the real "Terra." Not only history but science has followed a divergent path on Anti-Terra: it boasts all the same technology as our world, but all based on water instead of electricity. When a character in Ada makes a long-distance call, all the toilets in the house flush at once to provide hydraulic power.
Isaac Asimov's short story "What If—" is about a couple who can explore alternate realities by means of a television-like device. This idea can also be found in Asimov's 1955 novel The End of Eternity. In that novel, the "Eternals" can change the realities of the world, without people being aware of it.
The Plot Against America (2004) by Philip Roth looks at an America where Franklin D. Roosevelt is defeated in 1940 in his bid for a third term as President of the United States, and Charles Lindbergh is elected, leading to increasing fascism and anti-Semitism in the U.S.
In the Darren Shan Books "The Saga of Darren Shan" this subject is addressed in the twelfth book. It is said that history cannot be changed claiming that even if you went back in time and killed Adolf Hitler someone else would just replace him. A similar message is given in the German writer Carl Amery's book, The Royal Project (German: Das Königsprojekt), where a special unit of the Pope's Swiss Guard tries to change history in the Catholics' favor but comes to realize that, while history can be manipulated, it can not be changed.
The late 1980s and the 1990s saw a boom in popular-fiction versions of alternate history, fueled by the emergence of the prolific alternate history author Harry Turtledove, as well as the development of the steampunk genre and two series of anthologies — the What Might Have Been series edited by Gregory Benford and the Alternate ... series edited by Mike Resnick. This period also saw alternate history works by S.M. Stirling, Kim Stanley Robinson, Harry Harrison, Howard Waldrop and others.
Since the late 1990s, Harry Turtledove has been the most prolific practitioner of alternate history and has been given the title "Master of Alternate History" by some. His books include the Timeline-191 series, in which Confederate States of America won the American Civil War, and the Tosev timeline series, in which aliens invaded Earth during World War II. Other stories by Turtledove include A Different Flesh, in which America was not colonized from Asia during the last ice age; In the Presence of Mine Enemies, in which the Nazis won World War II; and Ruled Britannia, in which the Spanish Armada succeeded in conquering Britain in the Elizabethan era, with William Shakespeare being given the task of writing the play that will motivate the Britons to rise up against their Spanish conquerors. He also co-authored a book with actor Richard Dreyfuss The Two Georges, in which the United Kingdom retained the American colonies, with George Washington and King George III making peace. He did a two-volume series in which the Japanese not only bombed Pearl Harbor but also invaded and occupied the Hawaiian Islands.
Perhaps the most incessantly explored theme in popular alternate history focuses on worlds in which the Nazis won World War Two. In some versions, the Nazis conquer the entire world; in others, they conquer most of the world but a "Fortress America" exists under siege. Fatherland (1992) by Robert Harris, set in Europe following the Nazi victory, has been widely praised for portraying a more believable society and series of events than most other novels set in a world after a Nazi victory. Several writers have posited points of departure for such a world but then have injected time splitters from the future or paratime travel for instance James P. Hogan's The Proteus Operation. Norman Spinrad wrote The Iron Dream in 1972, which is intended to be a science fiction novel written by Adolf Hitler after fleeing from Europe to North America in the 1920s. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen have written a novel, 1945, in which the U.S. defeated Japan but not Germany in World War II, resulting in a Cold War with Germany rather than the Soviet Union. Gingrich and Fortschen neglected to write the promised sequel; instead, they wrote a trilogy about the American Civil War, starting with Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War, in which the Confederates win a victory at the Battle of Gettysburg.
Beginning with The Probability Broach in 1981, L. Neil Smith wrote several novels which postulated the disintegration of the U.S. Federal Government during the Whiskey Rebellion and the creation of a libertarian utopia.
A recent time traveling splitter variant involves entire communities being shifted uptime to be the founding fathers of new time branches. These communities are transported either from the present or the near-future to the past via a natural disaster, the action of technologically advanced aliens, or a human experiment gone wrong. S.M. Stirling wrote the Island in the Sea of Time trilogy, in which Nantucket Island and all its modern inhabitants are transported to Bronze Age times to become the world's first superpower. In Eric Flint's 1632 series, a small town in West Virginia is transported to 17th century Europe and leads a revolution against the Habsburgs. John Birmingham's Axis of Time trilogy deals with the culture shock when a United Nations naval task force from 2021 finds itself back in 1942 helping the Allies against the Empire of Japan and the Germans (and doing almost as much harm as good in spite of its advanced weapons).
Many fantasies and science fantasies are set in a world that has a history somewhat similar to our own world, but with magic added. Since the existence of magic implies different laws of nature it is difficult to imagine a credible point of divergence: The effects of divergence would have existed throughout human history and indeed throughout all evolution of life (unless one posits sudden changes in the laws of nature in medieval or modern times brought about by aliens, a time-space warp, etc.). One example of a universe that is in part historically recognizable but also obeys different physical laws is Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions in which the Matter of France is history, and the fairy folk are real and powerful. A partly familiar European history for which the author provides a point of divergence is Randall Garrett's "Lord Darcy" series: a monk systemizing magic rather than science, so the use of foxglove to treat heart disease is called superstition.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell takes place in an alternate version of England where a separate Kingdom ruled by the Raven King and founded on magic existed for in Northumbria for over 300 years. In Patricia Wrede's Regency fantasies, Great Britain has a Royal Society of Wizards, and in Poul Anderson's A Midsummer Tempest William Shakespeare is remembered as the Great Historian, with the novel itself taking place in the era of Oliver Cromwell and Charles I—and an earlier Industrial Revolution.
The Tales of Alvin Maker series by Orson Scott Card (a parallel to the life of Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) takes place in an alternate America, beginning in the early 19th century. Prior to that time, a POD occurred: England, under the control of Oliver Cromwell, had banished "makers", or anyone else demonstrating "knacks" (an ability to perform seemingly supernatural feats) to the North American continent. Thus the early American colonists embraced as perfectly ordinary these gifts, and counted on them as a part of their daily lives. The political divisions of the continent is considerably altered, with two large English colonies bookending a smaller "American" nation, one aligned with England, and the other governed by exiled Cavaliers. Actual historical figures are seen in a much different light: Ben Franklin is revered as the continent's finest "maker", George Washington was executed at the hands of an English army, and "Tom" Jefferson is the first president of "Apallachee", the result of a compromise between the Continentals and the British.
On the other hand, when the "Old Ones" still manifest themselves in England in Keith Roberts's Pavane, which takes place in a technologically backward world after a Spanish assassination of Elizabeth I allowed the Spanish Armada to conquer England, the possibility that the fairies were real but retreated from modern advances makes the POD possible: the fairies really were present all along, in a secret history. Again, in the English Renaissance fantasy Armor of Light by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett, the magic used in the book, by Dr. John Dee and others, actually was practiced in the Renaissance; positing a secret history of effective magic makes this an alternate history with a POD, Sir Philip Sidney's surviving the Battle of Zutphen, and shortly there after saving the life of Christopher Marlowe.
Many works of fantasy posit a world in which known practitioners of magic were able to make it function, and where the consequences of such reality would not, in fact, disturb history to such an extent as to make it plainly alternate history. Many ambiguous alternate/secret histories are set in Renaissance or pre-Renaissance times, and may explicitly include a "retreat" from the world, which would explain the current absence of such phenomena.
When the magical version of our world's history is set in contemporary times, the distinction becomes clear between alternate history on the one hand and contemporary fantasy, using in effect a form of secret history (as when Josepha Sherman's Son of Darkness has an elf living in New York City, in disguise) on the other. In works such as Robert A. Heinlein's Magic, Incorporated where a construction company can use magic to rig up stands at a sporting event and Poul Anderson's Operation Chaos and its sequel Operation Luna, where djinns are serious weapons of war — with atomic bombs — the use of magic throughout the United States and other modern countries makes it clear that this is not secret history—although references in Operation Chaos to degaussing the effects of cold iron make it possible that it is the result of a POD. The sequel clarifies this as the result of a collaboration of Einstein and Planck in 1901, resulting in the theory of "rheatics". Henry Moseley applies this theory to "degauss the effects of cold iron and release the goetic forces." This results in the suppression of ferromagnetism and the reemergence of magic and magical creatures.
Alternate history shades off into other fantasy subgenres when the use of actual, though altered, history and geography decreases, although a culture may still be clearly the original source; Barry Hughart's Bridge of Birds and its sequels take place in a fantasy world, albeit one clearly based on China, and with allusions to actual Chinese history, such as the Empress Wu. Richard Garfinkle's Celestial Matters incorporates ancient Chinese physics and Greek Aristotelian physics, using them as if factual.
A fantasy version of the paratime police was developed by children's writer Diana Wynne Jones in her Chrestomanci quartet (1977–1988), with wizards taking the place of high tech secret agents. Among the novels in this series, Witch Week stands out for its vivid depiction of a history alternate to that of Chrestomanci's own world rather than our own (and yet with a specific POD that turned it away from the "normal" history of most worlds visited by the wizard).
Terry Pratchett's works includes several references to alternate histories of Discworld. Men At Arms observes that in millions of universes, Edward d'Eath became an obsessive recluse rather than the instigator of the plot that he is in the novel. In Jingo, Vimes accidentally picks up a pocket organizer that should have gone down another leg of the Trousers of Time, and so can hear the organizer reporting on the deaths that would have occurred had his decision gone otherwise. Indeed, Discworld contains an equivalent of the Time Patrol in its History Monks. Night Watch revolves around a repair of history after a time traveler's murder of an important figure in Vimes's past. Thief of Time presents them functioning as a full-scale Time Patrol, ensuring that history occurs at all.
The idea of an alternate history was used for satiric and comedic effect in the BBC Radio comedy Married. The protagonist, a confirmed bachelor, awakes one morning in a world where he has a wife and two children, and people familiar to him are radically changed. One historical divergence in this world, exploited mostly for comedy, was the decision of King Edward VIII not to abdicate in 1936. His heirs were a King Richard and a King John, the latter of whom was openly homosexual.
A few movies about alternative universes focus on individuals rather than historical events, for example, Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life, and more recently the Back to the Future series of films, Blind Chance, Sliding Doors, Run Lola Run, Me Myself I, The Butterfly Effect, and Frequency.
Other non-alternate history television shows have explored the concept. Star Trek has used the theme several times. Examples include: TOS- "City on the Edge of Forever" (alternate World War II outcome); Animated Series- "Yesteryear"; NG- "Yesterday's Enterprise". Also, the universe of "Mirror, Mirror", while in the original episode was just implied to be a parallel universe, was in later episodes shown to be an alternate history. The British TV series Doctor Who had a few episodes that involved an alternate Earth where Pete Tyler, father of Rose Tyler, was alive, successful, and rich, unlike the Pete Tyler on the original Earth, who died when Rose was a baby and had been unsuccessful in business. The Doctor, Rose, and Mickey Smith visited the alternate Earth by accident in Rise of the Cybermen and The Age of Steel. The second season finale Army of Ghosts and Doomsday also involved travel to the same alternate Earth, and the series four episode Turn Left showed an alternate history where the Doctor has been killed. On a 2007 episode of Family Guy, Peter Griffin travels back to 1984 to meet Lois when they were both 18, and ends up not going to the country club dance and then in the present was radically changed. In the Twilight Zone episode The Parallel, an astronaut is transported to an alternate Earth where history play our differently, but no-one believes him when he discovers this.
Various anime productions have also used the genre. In the Japanese television series, "Zipang" (based on a manga of the same name), a modern Aegis class destroyer of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force is thrown back in time to the Battle of Midway in 1942. The presence of the ship and its crew, their advanced technology and knowledge of the future, change the course of World War II and create an alternate timeline. The anime Code Geass depicts an alternate history in which an empire known as Britannia has colonized Japan.
Crimson Skies is one example of an alternate history spawning multiple interpretations in multiple genres. The stories and games in Crimson Skies take place in an alternate 1930s United States, where the nation crumbled into many hostile states following the effects of the Great Depression, the Great War, and Prohibition. With the road and railway system destroyed, commerce took to the skies. Great cargo zeppelins escorted by fighter squadrons are the targets of many ruthless air pirates and enemy countries. This world has featured in a board game, a PC game, an Xbox game, a collectible miniature game and various promotional novels, comics and short stories.
The game Freedom Fighters portrays a situation similar to that of the movie Red Dawn and the game Red Alert 2, though less comically than the latter. In it, the point of divergence is during World War II, with the Soviet Union first to develop an atomic weapon, which they immediately use on Berlin. With the balance of power and influence tipped in Russia's favor, history diverges; brief summaries at the beginning of the game inform the player of the Communist bloc's complete takeover of Europe by 1953, a different ending to the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the spread of Soviet influence into South America and Mexico. The plot of the game revolves around a Soviet invasion of the United States and the resistance fighting in New York City.
Similarly, the 2007 video game World in Conflict is set in 1989, with the Soviet Union on the verge of collapse. The point of divergence is several months before the opening of the game, when Warsaw Pact forces staged a desperate invasion of Western Europe. As the game begins, a Soviet invasion force lands in Seattle, taking advantage of the fact that most of the military is in Europe. The game is divided into three parts: the first focuses on the fighting retreat from Seattle towards Fort Teller in the Cascade Mountains; the second is a flashback to the recent fighting in Europe, which culminated in a Soviet attack on Manhattan; the third chronicles the fight to retake Seattle before a Chinese fleet arrives and forces the President to detonate a nuclear weapon to destroy the invaders. Turning Point: Fall of Liberty, released in February 2008, is an alternate history game in which Winston Churchill died in 1931, Europe and North Africa fell to the Nazis, and the Axis won World War II and have invaded the United States. Another alternate history game involving Nazis is War Front: Turning Point in which Adolf Hitler died during the early days of World War II and thus, a much more effective leadership rose to power. Under the command of this new Führer (who is referred to as "Chancellor", and his real name is never revealed), Operation Sealion succeeds and The Nazis successfully conquer Britain, sparking a cold war between the Allied Powers and Germany.
Another example of alternate history is the PS3 game Resistance: Fall of Man, in which World War II didn't happen, due to the absence of American forces in World War I, meaning there was no Great Depression or Treaty of Versailles. This explains the game's lack of nuclear offensive capabilities against the Chimera, an army of humans infected by an alien virus.
Influential comic writers have also used an alternate history as the background to their story. Alan Moore's 1986 comic series Watchmen is set in an alternate United States that not only has costumed adventurers but also contains other alternate history elements including an American "victory" in the Vietnam War and Richard Nixon serving five terms as president. Recently there has been Warren Ellis's 2001 comic series Ministry of Space where soldiers and operatives of the United Kingdom reached the German rocket installations at Peenemünde ahead of the U.S. Army and the Soviets.
The major comic book publishers have also used an alternate history. DC Comics referred to such stories as "Imaginary Tales" until in 1989 with Batman: Gotham by Gaslight they began using its publication imprint, Elseworlds. Various titles have been published under the Elseworlds logo including JLA: The Nail, , and Kingdom Come. Some Elseworlds titles have also appeared in the DC Comics Multiverse as alternate Earths with their character interacting with the character from the canon Earth. Marvel Comics has a similar format with their What If...? series. Beginning in 1977, the comics are usually single issues that are not connected to the main story line. A recent example is What If?: Planet Hulk which was based on the 2006 Planet Hulk crossover story line.
The basic difference between alternate history and a future history which becomes a kind of alternate history retrospectively is that the former is composed with the author in possession of facts on the course of actual events to which an alternate is posited, while the latter is written by a person having no knowledge of the future and who tries, to the best of his or her ability, to extrapolate from known tends at the time of writing. For example, H.G. Wells in "The Shape of Things to Come" - written in 1933 when Germany was still enfeebled by the Versailles Treaty and Adolf Hitler has just taken power - assumed that in the coming war, Poland would prove Germany's match militarily and the two would fight each other for ten years without a clear victory to either. A present-day writer - already in possession of the knowledge that Poland was swiftly overwhelmed by the Wehrmacht in the opening stage of the war - would, in order to write a similar alternate World War II scenario, need to give the reader a detailed explanation accounting for such a better performance by the Poles.
One should also not confuse the alternate history subgenre with secret history or historical revisionism, which gives an account of history at odds with our general understanding. For instance, a story that depicts key events of U.S. history as having been controlled by the Illuminati, Freemasons, or aliens might be secret history. Writers occasionally do unite alternate history and secret history. One example is "Dukakis and the Aliens," by Robert Sheckley in which Michael Dukakis defeats George H. W. Bush for the presidency in 1988 and then is taken to a secret saucer base under Area 51 to meet his new masters.
Alternate history also should not be mistaken for fantasy tales that employ a lost history trope, i.e., that assume a stage of human civilization which supposedly has been forgotten through the passage of time, not through conspiratorial suppression. The works of Robert Howard and J.R.R. Tolkien are excellent examples of lost history, which generally does not purport to represent a different timeline from our own. This type of history is generally referred to as Uchronia.
It is also possible to have novels that explore points of divergence without actually being works of alternate history themselves. An example includes Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time (1976). In the Piercy book, which follows Williamson's basic concept, a patient in a mental hospital is able to travel into two alternate futures—one an ecotopia run by reformed Weather Underground types and the other a fascist dystopia run by people-hating robots. Decisions she must make to resist a new type of brain operation will determine which future wins. This is a time travel story, a cross-time story, a delusional alternate reality story, and a point of divergence story all rolled into one but it is not alternate history because the point of divergence occurs in the present (or perhaps the near future), not in the past.
Less obvious is the difference between alternate history and invasion literature. The latter subgenre extrapolates, from the present, a concrete near-future possibility that is often an expression of current public fears (hence the alternate term "cautionary tale" used by Vita Sackville-West; see below). For instance, beginning in the 1870s the British reading public was treated to a number of books about a German or French invasion of an unready British Isles. During the Great Depression, Sinclair Lewis wrote of a fascist takeover in the United States in his classic It Can't Happen Here (1935). During the early years of World War II, Sackville-West penned the science fantasy Grand Canyon (1942) in which the Germans invade a woefully unprepared United States. One could define such tales as borderline alternate history, since they are usually set in a time that is only shortly after the time of writing and the events described could not have occurred without a branching of history before, if only slightly before, the book was written.
Not all time travel stories involve alternate histories. The writer may ignore the possibility of change, or have the cause-and-effect work out so that the time traveler's actions cause the future he remembers, as in Harry Harrison's The Technicolor Time Machine. Another example of this approach is Michael Moorcock's Behold the Man, in which the protagonist travels back to the Holy Land of 28 AD to meet Jesus, but upon meeting him (he is actually a retarded man) he starts to play the role of the Jesus he knows to the point that it is he who ends up dying in the cross.

subset: commoncrawl


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Chicken Little was a piker compared to green groups who are sounding the alarm that the end of the world has come. Just listen to these recent prognostications:
And on and on and on. Enough already! You get the idea. The theory is that we are like the canary in the mine shaft: if it dies we all do. We simply can´t continue to destroy valuable habitat with industrial and agricultural pollutants because by poisoning other species we are also imperiling our own lives.
The only problem with the green theory is that it is based on false assumptions.
Who says so? A former Greenpeace member, 36-year-old Danish political scientist and professor of statistics, Bjorn Lomborg, who wrote The Skeptical Environmentalist. Writer Nicholas Wade did a story in the New York Times about the book titled, "Surprise! The Earth May Be Okay After All." According to the Times, Lomborg´s in-depth analysis is a substantial work with almost 3,000 footnotes in which he rebuffs statements made by many environmental organizations. In the book Lomborg "refers to the persistently gloomy fare from these groups as the Litany, a collection of statements that he argues are exaggerations or outright myths."
Here are a few quotes from the New York Times article written by Wade:
The greens will no doubt try to discredit Lomborg but he´s ready: "I´m a left-wing guy and a vegetarian because I don´t want to kill animals . . . you can´t play the "he´s right wing so he´s wrong argument."
The news on the environment as reported by green groups is always bad. Global warming, arsenic in our water, disappearing species and forests, polluted oceans and ecosystems . . . there´s no end to what Lomborg calls "The Litany" for a very simple reason: This is business. Big business. Causes are cash to the greens.
The Sierra Club has NOT been a nonprofit organization for years. The Nature Conservancy owns five million acres, making it one of largest non-government landowners in U.S. In 1998 the Conservancy raised $744 million which included $130 million in securities income. Total transactions for 1998 totaled $1.36 billion, including $153 million in government contracts. 480 Nature Conservancy employees had salaries of over $50,000 in 1998. They aren´t called GREEN groups for nothing!
According to an article in Forbes called "Ego-Pragmatists," The Nature Conservancy has quite a nice little business doing what it doesn´t want the rest of us to do. According to Forbes, Exxon Mobil will drill gas wells on a 2,263-acre preserve in Texas City, Texas that is only one of two places in the world where the endangered Atwater prairie chicken is found. Guess who owns the preserve? The Nature Conservancy. Says Forbes, "The Nature Conservancy acquired the land as a donation from Mobil and has reaped $5 million from the company´s wells already there."
According to Forbes, "A couple of years ago the Conservancy paid International Paper $35 million for 185,000 acres on the St. John River in Maine to save it from other timber companies. It then contracted with a logger to log 75% of the land. The deal generated one million a year for the Conservancy.
The Conservancy also owns or has easements on 50,000 acres on Virginia´s Eastern Shore and is erecting five houses that will sell for $330,000 each! Evidently when green groups refer to "appropriate human use" it means anything done by them. It also may explain why it´s terrible when a cow poops in a stream but beautiful when a buffalo on a nature preserve does it. In the Forbes article, Kieran Suckling of the Center for Biological Diversity said, "I used to say the only things not allowed on Nature Conservancy reserves were mining and slavery, and I wasn´t sure about the latter. Now I may have to withdraw the former as well."
Don´t be surprised several years from now when The Nature Conservancy does things on all these conservation easements they are busy acquiring that the original owner would have never been allowed to do.
So you see, the green groups can´t afford to run out of causes because that´s what pays their salaries. To get gullible folks to whip out their checkbooks they need a never ending source of causes. And if they run out of land to "save" there is always the ocean. The Ocean Conservancy has a $15 million dollar budget with which it is trying to lock up parts of the sea. Says their President: "It´s time to begin applying to the oceans the same conservation ethic that has saved so much land from the destructive hand of humankind." Next I suppose they´ll be trying to save outer space.
Environmental organizations raise three and a half BILLION dollars every year and much of it is spent on a massive public-relations and fund raising effort. Some of the money is spent trying to elect politicians who will play along. The Sierra Club Political Committee contends that their goal is to elect Democrats, Republicans and Independents who are pro-environment, but in the 2000 election the Sierra Club endorsed all Democrats for the Senate except Jeffords, the then "Republican" who has since metamorphosed into an "Independent Senator."
All this money buys the green groups a seat at the negotiating table. That´s how the World Wildlife Fund ended up helping draft the Group of Eight Communique. The Nature Conservancy is a favorite of the Bush Administration because, like it, The Conservancy did not endorse the Kyoto Protocol. The $1.6 million government grant it got to study issues raised by the Kyoto Protocol was probably in no way related.
The greenies have even engaged the help of a higher power. Currently the Sierra Club is courting what they call the "Christian-environmentalist movement" which includes groups like Christians Caring for Creation; Religious Campaign for Forest Conservation; The Interfaith Global Warming Task Force (a project of the National Council of Churches, The Council on the Environment and Jewish Life); and Moses (Metropolitan Organizing Strategy and Enabling Strength) founded by Catholic activists and joined by Presbyterian, Anglican and Baptist churches.
That explains why we now see pastors, preachers and Jewish holy men meeting with legislatures to discuss a ban on logging on public lands or Catholic priests blessing newly installed solar panels and wind turbines in Wyandotte, Michigan. Since 1998 the Maine chapter of the Sierra Club and the Maine Council of Churches "have worked as partners in the spirituality and earth stewardship program focusing on watershed and global warming issues." According to the Sierra Club, Susan Sargeant is a grass-roots organizer and vice-chair of the Maine chapter who laughs as she describes the beginning of a partnership between her chapter and the Maine Council of Churches. "Since I´m an activist and organizer, I have at the top of my to-do list: find a coalition. But it´s become so much more than that. Our meetings are celebrations held in a different watershed each season. All these environmentalists get together and talk about what´s happening in their watershed and perform rituals at the same time. There´s a Celtic harpist who plays nature and spiritual songs. It´s a far cry from a regular meeting."
Anne Woiwode, is Director of the Mackinac Chapter of the Sierra Club and works with church groups on sprawl issues. She says, "It´s amazing how changing the messenger can change how the message is received." The greenies have even drafted the women´s movement in their war. One ally is Women´s Voice In The Environment, a group that organizes hikes, lobbying trips and "eco-spirit workshops."
To brainwash the next generation of check writing supporters the greenies established The Earth Day Network, a consortium of green groups that recommends that students join Earth First!, best known for their eco-terrorist tactics. If you don´t think your children are bombarded with green propaganda in school read their textbooks, or their letters to Congressmen. Ten percent of students may not know George Washington was their first president but they can tell you that our forests are vanishing, despite the fact that 70% of the forests that were here when Columbus landed are still here! But facts don´t matter. This is a holy war!
The media is a willing co-conspirator says Lomborg who, according to the New York Times, "chides journalists, saying they uncritically spread the Litany, and he accuses the public of an unfounded readiness to believe the worst. The Litany has pervaded the debate so deeply and so long that blatantly false claims can be made again and again, without any references, and yet still be believed."
Typical is the current debate over drilling in Alaska´s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. You may know that the U.S. imported 37% of its oil in the 70´s and 57% today. But did you know that the U.S. Geological Survey estimates there is enough oil in the Arctic Refuge to replace our imports from Saudi Arabia for the next 20 to 30 years? Did you know that Bush´s proposal would permit drilling on only 2,000 acres of the ANWR, or about one hundredth of one percent of the entire refuge? Of course you didn´t know that; the left-leaning media won´t tell you.
What boggles the mind is that funding for green groups often comes from foundations established by founders of the very companies the greenies seek to destroy. While they may get money from capitalists and engage in capitalism, in their hearts the greens are socialists who believe in central planning and environmentally correct economic development that is fairly distributed. "Socioeconomic and political factors like inequities in wealth and land ownership also play key roles in the loss of habitat," says the Sierra Club. "Because Americans consume so much more energy, food and raw materials than our counterparts in other developed countries, our impact on our environment is proportionally much greater. As a result, wildlife and wild places in the U.S. are being pushed to the brink of extinction."
Yes, the flower children of the sixties have grown up but their protest signs still decry the greedy practitioners of the Western lifestyle. Or what the Sierra Club refers to as "the social and political and economic institutions of the capitalist system."
Obviously they don´t like us very much. Especially you, because you own land and are employed in "the resource extraction industry." Let´s face it, they need an enemy to fight so they can continue to replenish their war chest and "TAG," you are it.
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Unions' interference making our lives difficult
Before I begin a denunciation of unions and unionism, let me say that in my life I have belonged to four unions.
They are: the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, Screen Actors Guild, the Musicians Union, (I played guitar on the air and at personal appearances) and the Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (Buffalo N.Y. They organized everyone in radio and TV)
In fact, when I left Buffalo for Los Angeles after only three months on the air, I had risen to a union position from which, union leaders told me, I could never be fired.
Let's see, Los Angeles or Buffalo. It was a tough choice but I chose L.A. None of these unions ever negotiated a contract of mine. My unionism did provide medical plans and the promise of retirement income.
Today a number of unions are threatening strikes -- strikes on the busiest holidays of the year. Walmart employees want to picket outside 4,000 of its stores to discourage perhaps hundreds of thousands of customers from entering the store for Black Friday bargains.
US Airways flight attendants, 6,700 strong, voted to strike over a contract impasse. That strike is not immediate but how many potential passengers reading about a strike will cancel reservations and move on to an air carrier with less potential for stoppage of their holiday trip.
Everyday passengers don't know that the National Labor Relations Board hasn't sanctioned a strike, nor is there any immediacy to those threats.
The average Joe Passenger just knows there's something in the wind at US Air so, "Honey, we'd better change airlines."
And how can we resist the Twinkies bakers union problems. After renewing a contract with the Teamsters, one of the toughest unions in America at the bargaining table, Hostess Brands was forced to shut its doors, laying off over 18,000 workers.
Almost 20,000 out of a job for Christmas, perhaps for Christmas yet to come. The bakers union, among other things, has refused to take a pay and benefits cut in order for the company to stay alive.
A deal that was accepted by the Teamsters. Already the company has given in to union demands that insist a driver who delivers cupcakes may not deliver bread and the two must never be on the same truck.
Ridiculous as that may seem it was decided in prior negotiations.
What's the point of this denunciation? Fewer than 12 percent of Americans belong to unions and the number is decreasing by the day. In a time when one would think unions and members would do all they can to shoulder their part of the economic load the rest of us must carry, they choose to make all of our lives more difficult.
We are fortunate. Living in a "right to work state" does have its benefits.


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Job seekers are overusing buzzwords and tired descriptors in the hope that they will magically get the attention of their audience.
I see them on résumés, hear them in networking meetings and interviews, and spot them in the all-important summary section on LinkedIn.
Career clichés are boring, uninspiring, and a turn-off.
Have you used any of the words on this list lately?
- Team player
- Results-driven
- Fire-in-the-belly
- Excellent leadership skills
- Great organizational skills
- Works well autonomously
- Self-starter
- Ability to prioritize
- Customer-focused
The words themselves are not the problem — the problem is that they have no value when used alone. Comments like these in résumés are empty. They have no meaning, no credibility.
I have seen as many as 20 or more of these kinds of words listed at the top of a resume — in a candidate's executive summary. It's a waste of real estate on the page and can quickly get you tossed into the "no" pile.
These are not the key words that recruiters and hiring companies are looking for. Many of these clichés are really just "tickets to play" or basic skills you need to have if you are going to be successful in the job for which you are applying. If you are hoping a recruiter will find you with these words when he does a key word search, you are misguided.
Here is an exercise to check yourself on the importance of the skill sets you are highlighting. Read each phrase and ask yourself "What is the opposite of this?" For example, you might call yourself a "team player" as opposed to "a loner who doesn't work well with others." It is a basic and empty description that should already be implied with your other skill sets and experience.


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The best part of decorating for the holidays is unpacking the decor that has been stuffed away for a year. I'm embarrassed to say that I completely forgot about this table topper….but it was such a fun surprise to find!
This quilt I didn't forget about...but it was still plenty exciting to get it out of its tub-o-crap and back to use.
I'm so glad I made these last year even though I was really big, sick and pregnant…in that order. Too often I think that its a waste to make quilts that are only used for one month out of the year…but really it just makes them that much more special.


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"Primer is like the foundation of a house," says PPG Product Manager Jeff Griffin. "You don't want to build a house on sand (lacquer)-you want to build it on concrete (two-component urethane)."
To be honest, we weren't thinking in such ambitious terms when we decided to go to work on our errant '84 Z28. We were just thinking that anything would look better than the faded, cracked mess covering much of the Camaro's surface. Then again, we have high hopes for this Z, so if the job's worth doing, it's worth doing right. And so we set out to learn what goes into getting a car into primer.
Our talent for this project was Studio Auto Body of Glendale, California. Proprietors Robert and Jeremiah Becker have painted a number of CHP feature cars, and even resurrected one that was sandwiched in a traffic accident ("The Mojo's Workin' Revisited," Sept. '05). We started with the basics, specifically, why do we need primer?
"Paint doesn't stick to bare metal like it does to primer," responded Jeremiah. "Primer is also the last layer of body filler," he continued, "but it mainly helps the paint stick." So there you go: Primer is part of the bodywork phase, but it's also part of the paint phase-the foundation we mentioned above.
The biggest issue facing our Z was the cracking paint. This California car even had surface rust in several places. "If the paint's cracking," Jeremiah told us, "you have to get it all off." This car vividly illustrates an important thing to remember when laying down a primer coat: You can't leave anything beneath the primer that might pop up and cause a problem later. That lesson taken to heart, we asked for a few other primer tips:
Jeremiah's Tips
* Take off as many parts as possible. You want to sand and prime everything that you can.
* Prepare the surface before body filler. Everything must be properly sanded and degreased before application.
* Prepare the surface before primer. Again, everything must be properly sanded; using lighter-grit paper leaves fewer scratches to be filled.
You notice a theme? The words "preparation" and "sanded" figure prominently here. Jeremiah and his ace bodyman, Jose Garcia, took three days to get our Camaro into primer, and very little of that time-less than an hour, we'd say-was spent actually spraying primer. The rest of the time was spent preparing the car for the spray, and the bulk of that was spent sanding. Sanding, we came to learn, is crucial to laying down a good coat of primer, and for several reasons.
It's important, of course, to eliminate cracked paint and clear, as well as surface rust, so there's no nastiness left behind to ruin the paint. Careful sanding is just as critical to the bodywork. "If it's not sanded right, the filler won't stick," Jeremiah pointed out. But remember this: Primer is also filler. "The goal is to put a nice thick coat of primer on it, filling the scratches and high and low spots," Jose added. Remember those scratches. Sanding smoothes a surface but also creates minute scratches that must be filled. As we'll show you, minimizing scratches by using finer-grit paper when possible saves work in the future.
And what does that future hold? We will be painting this Z-but not yet. Truth be told, we've got a pile of go-fast parts we're dying to try out before we make it look pretty. So we're gonna drive it in primer for a while. "I don't recommend you do it for too long," Jeremiah cautioned. "Primer is porous, and it can crack and get moisture in it." So we'll be limiting our exposure to the elements.
There will still be a bit of primer work to do before we lay on the new hues. "We'll use a long-block with 150-grit paper on it to reveal the high and low spots," Jeremiah shared. "It'll get another layer of primer to fill the low spots, more sanding, then we'll wet-sand it with 400-grit." So there's a decent chunk of work to do. On the other hand, we've done the important prep work, laying the foundation for a high-quality paint job. Here's how we got there. CHP
Quick Notes
What we Did:
Bodywork, sanding, and more sanding before putting a scabrous '84 Z28 into primer.
Bottom Line
Primer is the foundation for a quality paint job, so do it right.
PRICE (approx)
$225 for materials only; $2,500 with labor


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Posted 08 November 2012 - 15:00
Posted 08 November 2012 - 18:00
Posted 08 November 2012 - 18:16
Soon Galaxy S3 will sell as iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 combined
In other news.. Apple stock completely tanks.
They lost over 100 bilion dollars in market cap but that's what happens when your value is overblown and starts deflating. From 700s to 545 in 2 weeks and it's still not over btw, people are selling off stock like crazy.
Posted 08 November 2012 - 18:21
Well that's interesting... dropping 2% is "tanking"? You do realize the Dow dropped almost 400 points over the past 2 days, right?
Oh wait, you don't care about reasoning... Carry on...
Posted 08 November 2012 - 18:26
I think you missed the whole dropping from $700 to $550 in a month in a half (not 2 weeks) part, yes?
Posted 08 November 2012 - 18:33
Well that's interesting... dropping 2% is "tanking"? You do realize the Dow dropped almost 400 points over the past 2 days, right?
Oh wait, you don't care about reasoning... Carry on...
Posted 08 November 2012 - 18:35
No I didn't miss it. The Dow has also lost almost 1000 points in that same time frame.
The cause is market uncertainty; not Apple uncertainty. All tech stocks have been hit hard lately.
Posted 08 November 2012 - 18:50
The Dow has dropped about 6% in that timeframe. Apple dropped almost 25%. A couple of other tech stocks, Microsoft down ~8%, Google dropped ~13% (on their own news of a poor quarter), IBM dropped about 8%. If you don't think Apple is dropping more, then I'm glad you aren't handling my money.
Posted 08 November 2012 - 19:59
You don't seem to understand how the stock market works. Stocks go up and down depending on market un/certainty and also company financial factors. Apple has been doing great with sales, and only really has the problem with production shortages to go against it. A lot of tech stocks are at year lows right now; Intel, AMD, etc. Apple is nowhere near year lows. Look at their trend over the past year. It's went up, down, up, and now down. You can pretty much bet it will be back to the 700 level within a few months. Unless you can prove otherwise, the drop is largely due to market trending of tech stocks.
I'm glad I don't handle your money either. I have thousands of dollars in profits in the past 2 years. Just because I don't agree with you on the market trend of Apple's stock doesn't mean I don't know what I'm doing. My capital gains would prove otherwise...
Posted 08 November 2012 - 20:41
Haha, you always sound so upset and defensive when you post. I'm not trying to attack your character or anything. Apple has taken far more of a hit than the rest of the market in the last month or two, which is all I said. You made it sound like it just dropped in line with the whole market. Apple may not be near year lows yet, but that's because it's been going up too fast and $700 is just far overvalued for Apple. I think the bigger drop for Apple is a combined effect of the market's recent downturn, the fact that Apple was overvalued, and from everything I have seen, people starting to seem a little less excited about Apple these days. It will absolutely rebound, but I think saying it'll be back in the 700s in a few months may be a bit aggressive, especially when there's no indication of when it's going to stop dropping. But, that's what makes the stock market exciting. Anything can happen so we'll see how it goes. Too unpredictable and too damn expensive for me though.


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You say that as if such opinions should be summarily dismissed. The reality is that physical discipline has many benefits to the child, as it can be used to discourage bad behaviour (hitting other children, etc) and dangerous behaviour (running out into the road, etc). I agree that using physical implements / weapons (belts, objects, etc) is completely unacceptable, no matter the severity of the child's actions. I was smacked when I seriously misbehaved as a child and I believe that it had a positive impact upon me as an individual. It was only ever used on serious occasions and I always knew I was stepping over-the-line. The rest of the time if I misbehaved I was made to stand in a corner and was not allowed to leave until a certain period of time had elapsed (usually about 5-10 minutes). And the latter happened quite a lot, as I had two younger brothers and we would get into fights.
Cue the "I got spanked and I'm fine, so everyone must be fine or is sick from the get-go" trolls...
It's unfair for people to take a report like this and use it to discredit the use of physical discipline when it doesn't take into account the frequency with which it is used. Some of the people in the report noted it occurring on a regular basis, which is really not acceptable - but that should not be compared to a child who is smacked maybe once or twice a year and only when the reason for it is fully explained to them. There has not been enough - if any - research into the benefits of physical discipline. You can't make an informed decision without knowing the evidence for both sides. But judging by the number of unruly children who have clearly never been properly disciplined I cannot fault parents who are only doing what they believe is best for their child. Few would argue that the decline in physical discipline has resulted in better behaved and less troubled children; many would argue the exact opposite.
When I have children I intend to use physical discipline only as a last resort but will not hesitate if I feel it is warranted.


text: It's bull.... Brock is not due to return ANY time soon. He's got a UFC contract and even if he does return it won't be on a regular basis. There's only one match Brock will do for the WWE and that is against Steve Austin. Don't count on this happening within the next 24 months though.


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Moderators: Jason, Toothy, Tonyblack
meerkat wrote:Jurrassic Park 1
Jurrasic Park 2
Jurrasic Park 3
Hot Fuzz
Pride and Prejudice (1995)
Sense and Sensibility ('my father's favourite' gets me every time)
Pirates 1
Pirates 2
Pirates 3
The Snowman (animation. still love it after all these years)
But there are others (3 dvd stands of them!)
Who's Wee Dug wrote:I really liked Avatar Pip saw it in 3D and glad I did, looking forward to the sequal. Titanic not my type of film would not even bother watching it on TV.
author3 wrote:Yesterday me and my mates watched Scream4 and i thought it was hilarious
anyone here seen it?
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Learn more about Chrome Chrome High-Output Shower Filter:
Manufacturer: Sprite Industries
Mfg Part#: HO2-CM
Sku: 227668000
Package Weight: 1.6 lbs
See more in Shower Heads
|The perfect complement to your favorite showerhead, the High-Output Shower Filter is durable and has a high capacity replaceable filter. Chlorgon/KDF filter lasts up to a year, depending on sediment levels. Easy-open design makes changing filter simple. Self-sealing threads prevent leaks. For use with your existing showerhead. Not suitable for homes with water pressure over 150 psi. Available in white or chrome-plated finish. USA.


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Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Committee
Formed in 1992, the Environmental Crime Committee assisted INTERPOL in identifying emerging patterns and trends in the field of environmental crime enforcement.
The Committee acted as a forum in which law enforcement officials could meet face to face in order to discuss new strategies and practices, share experience and expertise, and build the bridges of international cooperation that are vital in the fight against international environmental crime.
During the INTERPOL/UNEP International Chiefs of Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Summit in March 2012, the decision was made to restructure the Environmental Crime Committee. This initiative, known as the Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Committee (ECEC), brings together executive leaders and decision makers from all 190 INTERPOL member countries to provide strategic advice on relevant issues and to harness global support.
The 1st Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Committee (ECEC) Meeting and Events were held from 4 to 8 November 2013 in Nairobi, Kenya.
To support the Committee in its function, three working groups lead projects in specific areas:
Fisheries Crime Working Group
The INTERPOL Fisheries Crime Working Group initiates and leads a number of projects to detect and combat fisheries crime.
Two such projects were launched In 2013: one focusing on intelligence and the other on capacity building and advocacy. They are led by the governments of Norway and South Africa respectively. Driven by experts, the projects aim to identify, guide and develop the Working Group's activities in these areas.
Taking action
The Working Group has four strategic goals:
- Enhance and develop the capacity, capability and cooperation of member countries to effectively enforce fisheries and crossover crimes;
- Encourage and assist the exchange of information and intelligence related to fisheries crime among member countries;
- Provide analytical and operational support to member countries in the enforcement of fisheries laws and regulations;
- Encourage and facilitate networking, channels of communication and exchange of technical expertise between member countries for the purpose of fisheries law enforcement.
Final Report
2nd meeting of the Fisheries Crime Working Group
4, 5 and 7 November 2013 – Nairobi, Kenya
Members of the Board
Chairperson – Gunnar A. Stølsvik
Head of Project
Norwegian national advisory group against organized IUU-fishing
Norwegian Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs
Vice Chairperson – Stuart Cory
Special Agent
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
United States
Secretary – Foluke O. Areola
Acting Director,
Federal Department of Fisheries,
Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
Support Officer – Gary Orr
Manager, Compliance Operations
Compliance Directorate, Operations Branch
Ministry for Primary Industries
New Zealand
Message from the Chair
Members of the Advisory Board
Participation in the Committee is open to law enforcement officers, officials and experts from all of INTERPOL's 190 member countries.
Nine members of the Advisory board provide their leadership and organizational skills to the Committee.
The Committee members are elected during the International Conference on Environmental Crime (held every two years), from among the Committee's delegates, and each serve a term of two years, once renewable.
Members of the Advisory Board
Chairperson – David Jordan
Director of Operations
Environment Agency, U.K.
Vice-Chairperson – Bruno Manin
Chef d'office, Office central de lutte contre les atteintes à l'environnement et à la sante publique
Gendarmerie Nationale, France
Delegate – Gord Owen
Chief Enforcement Officer
Enforcement Branch, Environment Canada
Delegate - Gina Geovanna Perez Valencia
Policía Ambiental del Ecuador
Delegate – Roland Maria Willekens
Dutch Police National Programme Manager
Environmental Crime
Delegate - Lawrence Chidi Anukam
National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency {NESREA}, Nigeria
Delegate - Rui Fernando Batista Moura
Major General/Deputy Commander of the Operational Command
Guarda Nacional Republicana (GNR) – Portugal
Delegate - Frances Craigie
Environmental Management Inspector, Chief Director Enforcement
Department of Environmental Affairs, South Africa
Delegate – Matchonnawè Hubert Bakai
Juriste, Spécialiste du droit de la mer, Gestionnaire de projets
Point Focal BCN-INTERPOL/LOME/TOGO
Cabinet du MERF


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Circa 1960
An eight-light foliate chandelier retaining its original gilding. The arms bound by a crimped edge cuff with a rope detail creating a bouquet of light.
Current height: 51"
Minimum height: 31-3/4"
Overall: 30" diameter
Can be UL listed for use in dry environments
8 Candelabra sockets, maximum 60 watts per socket
1 fixture total available.
On display at our 59th Street showroom.


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Designed for optimal aerodynamics and comfort, the Sportful Bodyfit Pro Bib Shorts also feature AeroFlow Compress legs for muscle support. All of the flatlock stitching is placed out of the air flow for maximum aerodynamic performance. Additional features include seamless leg openings and a radio pocket on the mesh bibs. - A.D.
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Next generation of reactors will be built at Sellafield and Heysham, the Government announced today as it pushes ahead with plans for new nuclear power plants.
In the first major announcement on the future of nuclear in the UK since the Fukushima disaster in Japan, the Government outlined the locations deemed suitable for new power stations by 2025, all of which are adjacent to existing nuclear sites.
The eight sites are: Bradwell, Essex; Hartlepool; Heysham, Lancashire; Hinkley Point, Somerset; Oldbury, South Gloucestershire; Sellafield, Cumbria; Sizewell, Suffolk; and Wylfa, Anglesey.
The plans for new nuclear power plants are part of a series of national policy statements on energy which were published today, following a public consultation.
They will be debated and voted on in Parliament, but ministers are hopeful that, with a pro-nuclear majority in the Commons, they will win the argument.
Nuclear power is one of the issues that divided Conservatives and Liberal Democrats when they entered Government together, with the coalition deal allowing a Lib Dem spokesman to speak out against any new nuclear plants, while Lib Dem MPs could abstain on the issue.
Lib Dem Energy Secretary Chris Huhne has since given his backing to new reactors, insisting they would not be subsidised by the taxpayer - although MPs have warned that reform of the electricity market could favour nuclear power and amount to a hidden subsidy.
The Government is planning the new suite of reactors to maintain electricity supplies and cut greenhouse gas emissions as an old generation of power stations is shut down.
The future of nuclear as a power source for countries around the world was called into question earlier this year after the Japanese earthquake and tsunami rocked the reactors at Fukushima, leaving radioactivity leaking from the plant.
Mr Huhne signalled last month that plans for new reactors in the UK were on track after an initial report on Fukushima from nuclear chief inspector Mike Weightman ruled out the need to curtail the operation of nuclear power stations in the UK in light of the situation in Japan.
The energy policy statements aim to provide a framework for making planning decisions so projects do not face "unnecessary hold-ups".
They set out the need for billions of pounds of investment in new energy sources, including 33 gigawatts of renewable power - the equivalent of thousands of offshore wind turbines - to meet the UK's future needs.
Energy minister Charles Hendry said: "Around a quarter of the UK's generating capacity is due to close by the end of this decade. We need to replace this with secure, low carbon, affordable energy.
"This will require over £100 billion worth of investment in electricity generation alone.
"This means twice as much investment in energy infrastructure in this decade as was achieved in the last decade.
"Industry needs as much certainty as possible to make such big investments.
"These plans set out our energy need to help guide the planning process, so that if acceptable proposals come forward in appropriate places, they will not face unnecessary hold-ups."
He said the coalition Government was determined to make the UK attractive to investors to ensure that the country had secure, affordable, low-carbon energy.
A GOVERNMENT appointed planning inspector has ruled that an ancient Lake District fell pass is out of bounds for motorised vehicles.
The decision by the Secretary of State to make Garburn Pass, between Troutbeck and Kentmere, a 'restricted byway' follows three years of legal argument.
It means that any motorist or motorcyclist using the pass is committing a criminal offence and could face serious legal consequences.
The inspector went through hundreds of pages of documents ranging from maps of 1822, guide books of the 1880s, and photographs of motorbikes using the pass in the 1920s.
The Lake District National Park Authority has also announced that thanks to around £55,000 of Government funding invested in repairs following the 2009 floods, the pass is probably in better condition than it has been for hundreds of years.
"The storms of November 2009 badly damaged both sides of the pass, especially the western side where the track effectively became a river, and most of the surface ended up on the main road," said National Park Countryside Access Adviser Nick Thorne.
"We were able to obtain significant funding under the Paths for the Public Project, funded by Defra, the Rural Development Programme for England, and Cumbria County Council. And we have now completely rebuilt the worst affected areas in three stages with the work being carried out by our own staff, the National Trust, and a local contractor."
THOUSANDS of punters flocked to Cartmel Races for the course's biggest meeting of the year, spread over three days.
The traditional Bank Holiday Monday event attracted a crowd of 16,000 to watch the seven races.
Jonathan Garratt, Cartmel Racecourse managing director, said the bookies did not fare too badly.
"I think it has been mixed; they have had some favourites going in but I'm sure they have had ups and downs."
Punters successfully backed legendary racer Tony McCoy, who appeared on Monday.
Yesterday, too, proved a rare highlight for racegoers as three Cheltenham Festival horses went on parade for Veterans Day.
Chief Dan George, who is trained just a mile from Cartmel by Jimmy Moffatt, was joined by Mister McGoldrick and Hussard Collonges.
"We have had a lot of people who are on half-term holiday but it's also the day when racing enthusiasts from all over the country come and have their day at Cartmel because the course is slightly less overcrowded," said Mr Garratt.
Meanwhile, a racing steward became the first person to join an exclusive Cartmel 'club'.
Officiating at Saturday's races signalled a landmark for Colin Vickers — it meant he had visited every racecourse in Britain.
Cartmel Racecourse chairman Lord Cavendish presented Mr Vickers with a souvenir badge, which coincided with the launch of an I've Saved The Best Until Last club.
Anyone completing a visit to all Britain's racecourses with a trip to Cartmel will now receive one of the specially-commissioned badges.
Mr Garratt said: "When I came here I was amazed how many people said they had been to every other racecourse before they tasted the unique delights of Cartmel.
"I realised that they were saving the best until last."
MORE than 10,000 people flocked to Crooklands at the weekend to celebrate quality local produce.
Country Fest — organised by Westmorland Agricultural Society — showcased the finest food and drink the area has to offer.
Independent food and drink producers and suppliers, who give the region its culinary reputation, tempted the senses at the County Showfield and gave visitors an insight into where their food comes from.
The family event also included a pets' corner, 'meet the farmer', sheep shearing demonstrations, music and dance, a 'grow your own' area, crafts, beer festival, trade stands and dog shows.
Sheep dog trials were a new addition this year and The Westmorland Gazette hosted a wedding fair.
Richard and Barbara Mathews, from Kendal, were impressed with the range of items on sale and stocked up on locally-produced pies.
"We have such a wide variety of food here," said Mr Mathews.
"We have got a lot of farmers who are extending what they do into other products and we like to support them."
Tommy Brady, also from Lancaster, said: "The amount of food that is available is amazing. There are umpteen different types of sausage and pies — you want to buy it all."
Christine Knipe, chief executive of Westmorland Agricultural Society, said: "The sunshine did bring people out on the Sunday and it was very busy.
"The feedback was positive."
ZANY Steven Hall is urging people to vote for him after he performs in front of millions of TV viewers on Britain's Got Talent tonight.
The 53-year-old telecommunications engineer will represent Cumbria when he takes to the stage for the live semi-final with a new dance routine.
Having taken the nation by storm with his eclectic two-minute act, which saw him perform a dance to The Birdy Song, The Macarena and The Twist, he has become an overnight success.
He has gained more than 1.5 million views on YouTube and more than a thousand fans on his official Facebook site.
So, what has he got lined up for the biggest performances of his life tonight?
"It was said: 'How am I going to follow that?' Because the element of surprise has gone," he said.
"So I have taken what everybody said they would expect me to do next and not done it."
Life has changed for the Burneside Amateur Theatrical Society member since he gained three 'yes' votes from Amanda Holden, Michael McIntyre and David Hasselhoff, and a standing ovation from the Liverpool crowd.
"It was the second best experience of my life, but I can't tell you the first one," he jokes.
"Since then, it has been so busy I haven't had time to think about it.
"I have been to London several times for interviews and rehearsals."
Having performed in theatres across the Lake District, Steven set up Comedy Showtime two years ago, a five-person act that puts on performances across the region.
From this, a 10-minute dance evolved which came to form the basis of his BGT audition.
If Steven is successful tonight, he will make it through to Saturday's live final.
If victorious in the final, he will perform in front of The Queen at The Royal Variety Performance and win £100,000.
"I am nervous and confident about tonight," he said.
"Nervous because Simon Cowell is back on the show and he is held in such anticipation about what he has thought of the acts that have gone through while he's been away.
"But I am confident of my routine. I'm looking forward to it."


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One-off Maserati Merak up for sale
Recreate one-third of our cheap Italian supercar challenge with this not-so-cheap Maser
Posted: 23 Apr 2013
Many moons ago on Top Gear, the presenters were posed with an indomitable question that had plagued mankind since ancient Greeks first coined the term 'philosophia'. Can you buy a mid-engined Italian supercar for less than the price of a second-hand Ford Mondeo?
Clearly, you've got Dave, so you know the outcome. Yes you can, but no, you shouldn't. Really shouldn't. Here however, may we proffer up an example of one of the trio's supercars that is probably less likely to explode and sprinkle vital engine parts all over a hedge while careering to its explodey death. It's a one-off Maserati Merak, and it's coming up for auction.
Delivered to Carrosserie Saurer in Switzerland in 1984, this '75 Merak was the subject of a complete restoration, with a hand-crafted body built from aluminium styled to what Paul Saurer considered his 'ideal hot Merak'. It's been finished in silver with red leather, and has been fitted with very rare and very expensive 12in front and 15in rear three-piece split rim alloys - with bespoke tyres - costing £600 each.
Underneath, the standard Merak running gear remains, so you get a 3.0-litre V6, some 190bhp (assuming no ponies have escaped, unlike Jezza's), rear-wheel-drive, independent suspension and a top speed of around 150mph. Fingers crossed it doesn't go pop.
It's being offered up at Silverstone Auctions' International Trophy Sale next month, and is expected to go for around £40,000, which is actually quite a bit more than a brand new Ford Mondeo. Fancy it? If not, tell us what you'd buy for less than the price of a second-hand Ford Mondeo...
Vijay Pattni


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How the Gun Lobby Encourages People to Amass Arsenals
In the last six months I've written a lot about the politics of the gun issue (see here for example), and one of the key data points I keep trying to get people to understand is that gun ownership is actually declining in America and has been for a few decades. Yet there are just as many guns as ever (around 300 million by the best estimates), which means that on average, your typical gun owner now owns more guns than they used to. While no one that I know of has actually figured out the distribution, my guess is that most gun owners still have only one or two guns, while the numbers are being elevated by enthusiasts who think they really haven't guaranteed the safety of their family unless they have enough weaponry to fend off an assault by an entire battalion of the Red Army.
And it's important to understand that the gun lobby (by which I mean the National Rifle Association, similar groups, and the gun manufacturers) are doing everything they can to encourage existing gun owners to buy as many guns as they possibly can. I discuss this in a piece I wrote today for MSNBC's "Lean Forward" blog:
Gun lobbyists have been working hard to make sure that the law is no impediment to buying as much weaponry as you want. In February, Virginia repealed its law limiting gun purchases to one a month, to the celebration of the lobby; that leaves only California, Maryland, and New Jersey with such laws still on the books. And the industry and gun advocates cooperate to convince gun owners that gun and ammunition confiscation is always just around the corner, thereby urging them to go out and stock up.
When President Obama was elected in 2008, gun owners were told their weapons would soon be confiscated and gun sales surged. In advance of the 2012 election, the industry and gun advocates are once again telling gun owners that their guns might be taken from them. "We see the president's strategy crystal clear," said NRA leader Wayne LaPierre. "Get re-elected and, with no more elections to worry about, get busy dismantling and destroying our firearms freedom, erase the Second Amendment from the Bill of Rights and excise it from the U.S. Constitution." And once again, sales have risen in response. There is no evidence that these increases occurred because millions of people were going out to buy their first firearm. Instead, it appears, existing gun owners were increasing the size of their arsenals. The chief executive of Smith & Wesson attributes the increase in sales to the industry's "installed user base"—in other words, gun owners buying more guns.
If you're in the gun culture—if you're getting the NRA's magazines and emails and spending time at ranges and gun shops where the propaganda is reinforced—you'll hear this message again and again: stock up now, because the liberals are coming to take your guns. And that "installed user base" keeps responding.
I'll be speaking on a panel today at 2 p.m. EST at the Center for American Progress on this topic; you can watch a live stream here.
Mr. Universe
Tue, 2012-07-24 18:17
Let's not overlook the small cadre of gun-nuts like myself who are stockpiling the hoards of weapons and ammo necessary to fend off the roving squads of foaming teatard gun-nuts that are eventually going to swamp this nation once they dissolve civil government under President Michelle Bachmann (or someone like her). We dislike the NRA and their gun marketing campaigns, but we buy the guns anyway. You never know when President Michelle Bachmann might slip into office, dissolve civil government, and sic roving squads of well-armed teatards to round up us pin-head liberal intellectuals.
Fri, 2012-07-27 21:06
Many gun owners are collectors. I am particularly fond of WWII era weapons but I also collect modern guns. When there is news that makes gun owners concerned about possible new restrictions they may go ahead and buy that gun on their wish list now instead of waiting. I expect you would get the same result if they were discussing restricting the import of wood used to make a popular guitar. There would be a rush to buy.
Fri, 2012-07-27 20:51
If the government is going to confiscate all privately owned guns, wherein lies the logic of buying more guns? Whether an individual has one gun or twenty, if the government with the support of the Armed forces determined to take the guns away, they will take all twenty.
Fri, 2012-07-27 21:14
Guns are a durable item. We have no lists of gun owners and guns in this nation. That is one reason gun owners are so opposed to registration. It would take huge resources to search each home, dig up the back yard, look inside the walls. Most Americans, including police and military, see gun ownership as a constitutional right according to the poles. You could probably do it in some urban areas at the cost of civil liberties. In most of the country it would work about as well as prohibition of alcohol did.
Wed, 2012-10-10 11:47
Mr. Paul, When the Owebama administration 1)actively and vocally supports the UN Arms Trade Treaty which opens the very real possibility of infringment of the Second Amendment, 2) in court actively fought in against Heller 3) made public innuendos about an assault weapons ban JUST BEFORE Fast & Furious exploded is there any wonder why good Patriots are jumpy?? Anyway, it's NOT the gun lobby doing the encouragement it's the progressive left. For the very reasons listed above. Whenever there was a major jump in ammo and weapons sales one could accurately corrolate those events to the electorate feeling threatened by anti-gun policies from a Democratic W/H...How come with all the GREAT gun laws (including Brady) we still have gun deaths? Criminals don't care about laws, man! When will the progressive-left get that through their thick skulls? The only people who do care about them are law-abiding citizens needing to defend thamselves against those criminals... I can just see a street scene in Detroit...Dude #1:"Hey, Homey! whassssuuuup!? I got a wheel gun off this dude I just shook down...woooowwweee!!!!" Dude #2:"Uh, cool man, you all THAT and a bag o' chips, man!, But you know, gotta register that thing"....Dude#1: "Awwwwww,man! ya think??....Oh awwwright!!!Sheeesh!!!"
The progro left is waiting for just the perfect time to strike with sweeping gun legislation...If the good guys lose the Senate big, after this election, all bets are off...God help us all....
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Detailed scroll insets give life to this transitional towel shelf. Making use of wasted floor space will bring plenty of organization to your bathroom. The three shelves are perfect for toiletries, towels and other decorative items. The frame is constructed of a square tube steel for durability and powder coated in a pewter/gun metal finish that works well with all color schemes. A lovely diamond shaped mirror above the shelves adds sparkle and glimmer to your bathroom. Assembly required. 19 1/4" w x 39 3/4" h x 10 1/2" d.
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Find hotels & motels in Madison Heights using the list below. Search for cheap and discounted hotel and motel rates in or near Madison Heights, MI for your upcoming personal or group travel. We show the best Madison Heights, Michigan motel and hotel rooms. Browse the Madison Heights area hotels to find the perfect lodging! Please use the provided map of the Madison Heights hotels. Need 5+ Rooms? Secure Madison Heights Group Hotel RatesThe Madison Heights center is about the area of St John Hospital and 2 miles from Detroit Zoo.
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If you have been thinking that a garden sculpture might make the perfect gift for the gardener on your list, you're right! Many people however don't think to buy sculptures as gifts, thinking that they are going to cost a fortune. At Design Toscano, our sculptures come in all shapes and sizes to fit every space and budget. Here are some ideas for garden sculptures that all come in under $50.
Garden fairies are a delight in any outdoor space, with each one offering their own unique and mystical meaning. Our Ocean's Little Treasure fairy mermaid is just one example of an outdoor sculpture that adds a sense of magic to any outdoor pond or garden. Add an omen of good luck to your gift giving this year with this stunning fairy that is less than $30.
Animal garden sculptures are also very popular, and anyone that tends to their garden fastidiously will love the addition of a new fur creature to their outdoor space. The Meerkat Clan Statue is just one example from our huge selection of animal sculptures for the outdoors.
No matter what theme your favorite gardener has in their outdoor space, we have a huge selection of sculptures to match any design. Whether it is a garden gargoyle statue or a whimsical fairy, we have the selection to meet both your style and your budget under $50.