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Comments about SURFRIDER FOUNDATION SURFRIDER ECO-FRIENDLY KOOZIE:
Use it, especially, for that cold beer afetr surfing!
Looks goods; nice to handle; easy to store...
Only bad thing is everyone wants to "steal" them...
Comments about SURFRIDER FOUNDATION SURFRIDER ECO-FRIENDLY KOOZIE:
Awesome for a day at at the beach or a bbq!


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Fri September 13, 2013
Jobs, Debt And Home Prices Since The Crisis, In Five Charts
By Quoctrung Bui
Originally published on Fri September 13, 2013 2:00 pm
The housing bust started in 2006. The recession started in 2007. But it was in September, 2008 – five years ago this month – that the financial crisis hit its most intense moments. Here's a look at how U.S. households have fared since then.
Correction: The headline initially said "four charts." Thanks to the commenter who pointed out that there are, in fact, five charts in this post.
Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

subset: commoncrawl


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Restaurants with interesting game choices within approx 1 hr of Vail?
Hey Mountain Hounds!
I'll be visiting Vail for vacation in March and I'm looking for recommendations on where I can try some unique dishes featuring wild (or farm raised) game. Any type of restaurant is fine, but I'd like to have some choices--maybe buffalo, elk, venison, quail, etc. I'm willing to drive about an hour or so from the resort area, so if you know of anywhere unique, I'm all ears!
Thanks in advance for any tips!
Pepi's, in the heart of Vail, has an extensive game menu in its Antlers Room. It was once very good, but I can't honestly tell you how it is now because its been several years since I ate there.
Lord Gore Restaurant in the Manor Vail Lodge at the base of Golden Peak also serves game. Possibly also Ludwig's in the Sonnenalp. Bot pricey but well regarded.
Golden Peak Restaurant
, Vail, CO 81657
Lord Gore Restaurant
595 Vail Valley Dr, Vail, CO 81657


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It may be a strange activity to enjoy, but I've always thought warehouse stores are fun to shop in if nothing else. The samples are plentiful, they sell candy in massive buckets, and they have those spinning desk chairs in the office section that make for great racing material down the boulevard-sized aisles. Not that I've tried it.
But to the real point here: Does shopping at warehouse stores actually save you money? Are they worth the $45-$55 annual memberships? The answer can be complicated, but here's a general look at which items are a wise bundle buy, and what's not cheaper-by-the-dozen.
The skip list
The first rule of bulk buying is don't buy what you don't need, and especially don't buy massive quantities of something you've never tried before.
Also, there are so many things on the shelves at warehouse stores such as Costco and Sam's Club that may seem like the cheaper deal for someone who hates looking at grocery ads or clipping coupons. But generally speaking, for those who really want to save a buck, toilet paper, cleaning products, cereal, packaged snacks and even coffee are not the better deal at a warehouse store. Supermarkets constantly have buy one, get one free deals on these items. And, if you're tossing in a manufacturer's coupon that many grocery stores will double, those warehouse prices may be a far cry from the real deal.
Meats typically are not the best prices at these stores, either, especially ground beef, according to Business Insider. They may be a good quality, but it's best to shop grocery store sales for meatier deals.
Other fresh foods such as produce and breads are usually more expensive at Costco and Sam's Club, according to Consumer Reports. And, unless you have a large family, they'll go bad before you can eat them.
The stock-worthy
Assuming you have enough storage space in your house, these are some unbeatable bulk deals:
Diapers, if you like Huggies, are about 20 percent cheaper at Costco than at a superstore, according to price-comparison blog SquawkFox.
The blog also found that a dozen eggs at the warehouse stores are about $1 cheaper than they are at a superstore.
High-end cheeses also can be a good deal if you don't mind freezing half of it, or eating it in a couple of days like I have been known to do.
You will have to be careful with frozen foods. Being a vegetarian, I've found that the frozen fruits and veggies are the stand-out deals at these stores. They keep well and the price is right for the quality and quantity. Frozen pizzas and some appetizers are good buys if you're expecting a crowd. Anything else is typically overkill, like the giant box of 300 fish sticks.
If you drink a lot of beer, or you have a party coming up, head to a warehouse store. A case of beer is about 25 percent cheaper than at a grocery store, Consumer Reports says, which is like a free six pack. Canned sodas also can be a good deal in bulk, but it's hard to say if it's the best deal in town because grocery stores often run those "buy two packs, get three free" deals.
Cakes and snack platters are usually much cheaper at warehouse stores as well. So if you do a lot of entertaining, Costco and Sam's Club are your friends.
Reach Abigail Darlington at 937-5906 and follow her on Twitter @A_Big_Gail.
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Gear Review
hero snow
very dimly lit face
My wife just gave me this (rather expensive) very generous gift of a Suunto Elementum Terra Altimiter watch with the "Steel / Negative Face". I'm a fan of Suunto, and have been wearing a different model now for something like 3 years. She bought the Terra for me because of my past enjoyment of the other Suunto watch, and because I once told her about the new Elementum Suunto watches.
With all that said, it was very clear from the moment I powered up this watch that the display was unusually dim. I spent the first 15min with it attempting to see if there was some brightness adjustment (there is not), and then I spent the next 30min trying to determine if the batteries were low (they're fine). Through talking to bc.com folks and further reviewing marketing materials, it just seems like this is it. Do you see the picture above from bc.com of the "Steel / Negative Face Front"? Do you see anything on the face? No? Nor can I. If you change the angle of the face and get it under the correct lighting, you can eventually see the face digits. And, of course, there is a back light. The back-light button is shared by other functions and is time dependent though, so if you don't press and hold the button just right it won't light and will change the watch into another mode.
Because I like Suunto and I don't want to be so negative, I will say that their "Elementum" line has a nice appearance, that I'm sure the electronics are similar in accuracy and functionality compared to their other models, and that they are probably somewhat rare (they have priced them to be "exclusive", I'm guessing). The band is seemingly sturdy. I did not spend enough time operating it to get to know how user-friendly it was. Digital watches have a tendency to be somewhat non-intuitive. At first glance, this did not seem exceptionally intuitive either, but time would maybe tell differently.
In summary, this watch is way to expensive to only be so-so. If I got it for $200-$400, I might think it's OK, but would still not wear it much because of it's dim digits. I suppose there is a reason you never see these watches in stores; if you were to see it in person before taking it home, you wouldn't buy it.
You can actually adjust the contrast on this watch to get a brighter display:
1. Press the middle right button for 15 seconds, or until the screen goes blank.
2. The display will ask you if put the watch into Sleep Mode. Select YES with the rotating crown and confirm with the middle button.
3. After watch has entered sleep mode, press the upper right button for 5 seconds until the absolute pressure is shown.
4. Press the upper right button several times until 'contrast' is displayed.
5. Adjust the contrast by rotating the upper right button.
6. Press the upper right button to acccept the adjustment.
7. Press and hold the upper right button until the time is displayed.
I have mine set to 7 on the steel / negative face. All negative face watches are difficult to read in darker settings. I think you will be happer with the higher contrast setting though.
Another tip is if you hold the upper right two buttons at the same time you can lock the watch so that you won't accidentally put it into log mode. The light still works in this mode which is very cool.
My only gripe about the watch is the stop watch feature has a sort of "fake" 1/100 resolution. I.e., the stop watch only works to 1/10 resolution and not 1/100, recording values like 5.50, 6.60, 7.70, etc.
I have about 10 Suunto watches in the Vector and Core lines and this watch is my favorite. I also have the leather strap / positive face Elementum Terra and that also sees a lot of wrist time. The displays on the Elementum Line are just so cool to look at. Seems strange, because at the end of the day, it is just a digital watch, but the font they use is very nice.
View More Details on Suunto SUUNTO Elementum Terra Altimeter Watch


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Welcome to Honeyguide
Welcome to the website of Honeyguide Wildlife Holidays, now in our 25th season. If you are looking for a quality natural history holiday, this is a great place to start.
These web pages have our 2015 programme. Our calendar has a summary of dates and availability.
Click on any of our destinations on the left hand side. For prices, look under 'holiday details' towards the bottom of the page. If you would like a Honeyguide Wildlife Holidays brochure, please contact us.
Crane (Steve Fletcher) from Extremadura; Lusitanian sundew Tarifa & Gibraltar; Apollo butterfly from the French Pyrenees.
We are pleased to help with group holidays – even a holiday for half a dozen friends. Please browse our nature notes too.
Some holidays run in the past are in our archive section, including our autumn 2014 holiday in La Mancha.
The Honeyguide Wildlife Charitable Trust goes from strength to strength. There is a conservation contribution with each holiday of £40, which goes through the Honeyguide Wildlife Charitable Trust. We are maintaining what we do to support nature conservation at a time of spending cutbacks.
This idea, still surprisingly rarely copied, remains a simple and effective way of helping to protect the wildlife we enjoy. Donations to conservation projects linked to our holidays in 2014 totalled £5,765, and our running total since 1991 is £100,974 (to May 2015). Through the Honeyguide Charity, the taxman tops up our contributions.
Holidays give the typical flights we use, but increasingly we arrange flights from airports near to where you live, or help with other arrangements. Carbon offsets are, as usual, part of each holiday's price.
Rules about selling travel insurance mean if you want Honeyguide's insurance you need to go straight to our broker rather than buying a policy directly from Honeyguide. Details are on our booking page and there is also help here on booking parking and hotels at airports.
I hope you'll want to find out more by exploring this website further.
If you would like a Honeyguide Wildlife Holidays brochure, please click on 'contact us'.
Chris Durdin
Farther afield with Honeyguide
Your South Africa helps you to put together a wildlife holiday with dates and an itinerary that suits you. Click here for more.
Nature and culture hand in hand in Yucatán in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America.
What does the ATOL logo mean? Read more here >


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Just four years after they had claimed Latin America's most coveted club prize, the Copa Libertadores, for the very first time, Internacional once again underlined why they are one of the most feared sides on the continent. On the back of a campaign featuring victories over reigning champions Estudiantes La Plata and 2005 winners Sao Paulo, the Porto Alegre outfit finally brought the trophy back to Brazil to end a run of three consecutive runners-up finishes for Brazilian teams.
Other notable features of the 51st edition of the Libertadores were a Chilean resurgence headed by semi-finalists Universidad de Chile, Mexico's consolidation as an ever greater power on the Latin American scene and a disappointing showing from the competition's Argentinian contingent.
The champions
Inter had failed to win their opening encounter on their seven previous Libertadores campaigns and, though they ended that run this time around with victory over Emelec, O Colorado struggled for consistency right through to the quarter-final stage. The appointment of new coach Celso Roth, who replaced Jorge Fossati with a semi-final berth already in the bag, allied to the signings of three members of Inter's 2006 Copa-winning squad, Rafael Sobis, Tinga and Renan, would change all that. Following the break for the FIFA World Cup™, the Gaúcho heavyweights tackled the competition with renewed vigour and proved clearly superior to both Sao Paulo and Chivas Guadalajara, their beaten opponents in the last four and final respectively.
Aside from the new coach and new faces, another decisive factor in Inter's march to the title were their ability to conjure away goals. Perhaps the most crucial of these came in the second leg of the quarter-final meeting away to holders Estudiantes, when Inter would have exited the competition were it not for Giuliano's 88th-minute strike. The 20-year-old was a talismanic figure for O Colorado throughout the Copa, while experienced Argentinian virtuoso Andres D'Alessandro was also as influential as ever.
Lessons to be learned
Argentina began the tournament with six representatives, though the country's two biggest clubs Boca Juniors and River Plate were both conspicuous by their absence. In the event, the lesser lights failed to defend the honour of a nation which has won the Libertadores more than any other, with Newell's Old Boys and Colon failing to negotiate the preliminary phase and Lanus, Velez Sarsfield and Banfield all exiting early. Estudiantes did manage to prolong their title defence into the last eight, but fell some way short of their 2009 heroics.
More positive were the displays of Universidad de Chile which, in conjunction with the national team's showing at South Africa 2010, were another sign of the resurgence of Chilean football. Universidad's brand of neat, tactically-aware football took them to the semi-finals, knocking out Brazilian league champions Flamengo along the way, before exiting at the hands of beaten finalists Chivas. The latter, despite being denied the services of five Mexican internationals during the knockout phase, went on to match the achievements of 2001 runners-up Cruz Azul – Mexico's best Copa performance to date.
Finally to Brazil, who once again had five teams in the Round of 16. Boasting the finest record of any side in the first phase, Corinthians' dream of a first Libertadores crown was ended by countrymen Flamengo. Having finished runners-up in 2009, Cruzeiro were well beaten by Sao Paulo in the quarter-finals this time around, while O Tricolor Paulista's own hopes were ended in the last four by Inter – their nemeses from the 2006 final.
The surprise packages
Though unable to replicate the feats of Colombia and Ecuador, countries which have both supplied Libertadores winners in the past decade, 2010 did mark a considerable improvement in Peruvian fortunes in the elite competition. Leading the way were Alianza Lima, who qualified for the knockout stages as the best second-placed side and pushed Universidad de Chile hard in the last 16.
Also reaching that stage were Universitario, who left group rivals Lanus in their wake before exiting on penalties against Sao Paulo in the Round of 16 after two goalless legs. Even relative minnows Juan Aurich surpassed expectations by coming through the preliminary phase, while their striker Juan Tejada and Alianza's Jose Carlos Fernandez both ended among the tournament's leading scorers.
Another team to catch the eye were Paraguay's Libertad, who negotiated the preliminary phase before topping Group 4. And after edging out 2004 winners Once Caldas of Colombia in the last 16, in the next round Libertad came within one goal of overturning a 3-0 first-leg deficit against Chivas.
The star men
Alongside Giuliano and D'Alessandro, champions Inter had another star name in flying left-back Kleber. Meanwhile Bolivar and serial trophy-hunter Indio kept things tight in defence, aided and abetted by hard-working midfielders Pablo Guinazu and Sandro. For Chivas, Omar Bravo underlined his big-game temperament by scoring four goals in the knockout stages.
Argentinian midfielder Walter Montillo was inspirational in pulling the strings for Universidad de Chile, while mention must go to Sao Paulo's Alex Silva. Silva was the rock at the heart of a defence which conceded just one goal at home, though that solitary strike in the second leg against Inter would cost them a place in the final. Just as in 2009 Cruzeiro were devastating going forward, with Thiago Ribeiro and Kleber finishing the event as the two leading marksmen.
Finally, mention must also go to James Rodriguez of Banfield, Libertad's Rodolfo Gamarra, Santiago Silva of Velez, Estudiantes' Rodrigo Brana and Flamengo hitman Vagner Love.
Did you know?
Ever since the 2005 edition, the decisive second leg of the Libertadores final has always taken place on Brazilian soil. Gremio, Fluminense and Cruzeiro all suffered the agony of defeat against non-Brazilian sides in front of their own fans between 2007 and 2009, though Inter's triumph finally broke the hoodoo and gave Brazil their 14th Copa crown. Argentina still lead the way by some distance with 22.
The stat
2,377,325 – the number of the tickets sold spanning the competition's 138 games, at an average of just over 17,000 per match. Inter also finished first in this area, with an average of 40,000 fans attending each of their seven games at the Beira-Rio. Nine of the ten biggest attendances were in Brazil with Flamengo-Universidad de Chile at the Maracana, watched by 68,153 paying spectators, topping the lot.
What they said
"I came in for the semi-finals and final. But it's important to highlight that before I arrived there was a professional in place who did a job here, whether you like him or not. [Jorge] Fossati played an important role. As a foreign coach he had problems adapting (to Brazilian football), but part of this triumph is down to him," Internacional coach Celso Roth.
Final standings
1. Internacional*
2. Guadalajara
*As champions Inter qualify for the FIFA Club World Cup UAE 2010
The top scorers
1. Thiago Ribeiro (Cruzeiro) – 8 goals
2. Jose Carlos Fernandez (Alianza Lima) and Kleber (Cruzeiro) – 7 goals
3. Giuliano (Internacional) and Luis Tejada (Juan Aurich) – 6 goals


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Alright, now we're talking. S. Irene Virbila is back in town and ready to sniff out the restaurants we're eager to hear more about. To this end, she's at Aburiya Toranoko, the hyper-kinetic izakaya next to Lazy Ox. She surprisingly likes the graffiti and is bowled over by the expanse of the menu. She loves the seafood here, but not the sushi so much. She tucks into some char-grilled pig's feet and crispy fried octopus tentacles and sounds like she's in heaven. The choices are many and so far the execution is beautiful, especially while she pounds an Echigo Red (is this still Virbila we're talking about?). But as we've heard from the critic before, when things get too damn funky, her red pen comes out. "Some of the more creative dishes...fall flat...Call me crazy, but I just don't enjoy the taste or texture of cream cheese with raw fish." Nope, not crazy on that one. Only one question remains. Where are the stars? [LAT]
L.A. Weekly released its people issue today. That means, sorry L.A., no new J. Gold review. The man does take a look at Los Feliz butcher Nathan McCall, whom he scores a lid of Berkshire pork shoulder from when no one's looking. Meanwhile, Elina Shatkin drops in on Bricia Lopez, and let's face it, who doesn't love this dynamic young lady? She's even doing a Got Milk? Ad this summer. [LAW;LAW]
Patrick Kuh counts CBS and Mr. Chow among his ten favorite Chinese restaurants in L.A. [LAM]


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Raymond Chandler, Private Eye
In reading Raymond Chandler Speaking,1 a collection of the late mystery writer's letters and literary fragments, one gets a sense of the peculiar loneliness of the writer of integrity who works in a popular genre that attracts few writers like himself and that the American literary culture tends to dismiss with easy, contemptuous generalizations. Chandler was a talented and devoted craftsman, one who spent his life either in spurts of hard work on his novels or in long periods of lying fallow and brooding about the lack of serious understanding and appreciation with which his work was received. Of non-literary topics, only cats—traditional companions of the lonely and disaffected—appear to have interested Chandler very deeply.
It is from the letters in this volume—about two hundred in all, addressed mainly to publishers, agents, and fellow writers of popular fiction—that one senses the kind of isolation that Chandler experienced during his career. In one letter he writes as follows:
A thriller writer in England, if he is good enough, is just as good as anyone else. There is none of that snobbism which makes a fourth-rate serious novelist, without style or any real talent, superior to the mystery writer. . . . I don't think somehow we shall ever reach that status in America. . . . I'm afraid our instinct for classification is too strong.
At the same time, this feeling of being left out, of working at a vocation in which one's best and most conscientious efforts were underrated and misunderstood, can also be seen to have informed Chandler's fiction.
His great theme was not crime and punishment, though his letters reveal him to have had a sound technical knowledge of criminal history, psychology, and technique. His theme was, rather, an exploration of the belief that the moral man, who refuses to play the game of life in a conventionally immoral or amoral way, is doomed to the kind of loneliness Chandler himself suffered.
This understanding of Chandler and his theme provides, in turn, for speculation about the decline of a once promising figure in popular mythology, the private eye. As created by Dashiell Hammett and developed by Chandler, this figure offered a unique perspective on loneliness as a central condition of modern urban existence. Philip Marlowe, Chandler's detective, masked his feeling of emptiness behind a protective set of tough-guy mannerisms, and it is because Chandler's legion of imitators borrowed them, but not Marlowe's inner spirit, that the hard school is no longer very interesting. The books are sometimes amusing as puzzles, but nothing about them catches in the mind. Marlowe did.
The successors to Marlowe lead lives of breath-taking excitement. One races headlong through the books, borne mindlessly along by a succession of cheap thrills. Marlowe, like his creator, was a plodder, the intensity of his dangerous moments heightened by the contrast with the lonely boredom of his normal life. This gave Chandler the opportunity to write about boredom, that great modern subject, without ultimately becoming boring himself. A quick turn of the plot always saved him and the reader from ennui.
Except for these flashes of excitement, Marlowe was very much the average unmarried lower-middle-class citizen of a great American city. There is genuine poignancy in the lot of these people. Their work has brought them to the city but does not reward them sufficiently to enjoy its pleasures. Barred from the fashionable world, yet given tantalizing glimpses of it, they bury their envy in the routine amusements of movies, television, and drinking in bars, and discover that these cannot completely deaden desire.
Chandler was a master of this milieu. Of today's serious writers, only Graham Greene has given us a comparable rendering of the habits and habitats of the individual at loose ends in a great city. Greene came, in time, to see the squalor of the bed-sitting room as a symbol of man's alienation from God. Chandler never went quite that far. A striving for faith becomes the moral imperative in Greene's later work. A gruff, typically American sentimentality is Chandler's equivalent to it. It is pragmatic and limited; it says no more than that everybody has the right to be left alone. So, with Chandler, mood becomes dominant, and response to it is everything in the appreciation of his work.
The atmosphere of cheap furnished apartments, of second-rate bars where one can always find a conversation and sometimes a woman, the very feel of an empty city street to the man who has just killed the evening alone in a second-run movie house, are done with wonderful Tightness. So are the psychic defenses of the lonely man. Marlowe plays endless games of chess with himself, carefully setting up the classic problems, then spending the evening trying to solve them, sipping at a bourbon highball. He is persnickety, in an old-maidish way, about small things like coffee. The careful construction of an ideal cup of it occupies a lovingly written paragraph in almost every Marlowe novel. In fact, popular misapprehension to the contrary, Marlowe is more interested in good coffee than he is in booze, good or otherwise. Nor is Marlowe much of a boudoir athlete. He is rather offhand about women, perhaps a little defensive. Physically, of course, he needs them, but emotionally he knows they pose a threat to his independence. Consequently, he is wary, though gallant, in his treatment of them.
But why, since Marlowe is reasonably attractive, reasonably intelligent, does he do nothing to change his lot? Chandler answers this question in one of his letters, stating explicitly what is implicit in the novels.
If being in revolt against a corrupt society constitutes being immature, then Philip Marlowe is extremely immature. If seeing dirt where there is dirt constitutes an inadequate social adjustment, then Philip Marlowe has inadequate social adjustment. Of course Marlowe is a failure and usually he knows it. He is a failure because he hasn't any money. A man who without physical handicaps cannot make a decent living is always a failure and usually a moral failure. But a lot of very good men have been failures because their particular talents did not suit their time and place.
The trouble with Marlowe's successors in fiction and in the mass media is that their talents all too well suit their time and place.
The very presence of Marlowe in his shabby suit in his seedy office in unfashionable downtown Los Angeles was a criticism of the fast operators who were always trying to enlist his honesty in support of their crooked, but frequently respectable-seeming, schemes. One can only wonder what poor old Marlowe would have thought of well-groomed Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. and his fancy layout at "77 Sunset Strip." Probably he would have suspected him of fronting a numbers racket.
Where Chandler set out to record the experience of urban loneliness, his successors, for the most part, merely cater to that experience, offering ready-made daydreams to help the sufferer while away the lonely stretch from the end of dinner to bedtime. These detectives seem only accidentally to be on the side of morality; so shifty are their standards that one can as easily imagine them working for "the syndicate" (a fantasy creation in itself, and one that Chandler had no truck with) as against it. They live too fast and too well, they tumble into bed too easily with the proliferation of unbelievably desirable women who people their books. They are insiders in an affluent society. Marlowe was always outside and his conflicts had a dimension beyond the simple one of cops vs. robbers.
When he finished the first draft of his most solid piece of work, The Long Goodbye, Chandler wrote:
What is largely boring about mystery stories, at least on a literate plane, is that the characters get lost about a third of the way through. Often the opening, the mise en scène, the establishment of the background, is very good. Then the plot thickens and the people become mere names. Well, what can you do to avoid this? You can write constant action and that is fine if you really enjoy it. But alas, one grows up, one becomes complicated and unsure, one becomes interested in moral dilemmas, rather than in who cracked who on the head. . . . Anyhow I wrote [The Long Goodbye] as I wanted to because I can do that now. I don't care whether the mystery was fairly obvious, but I cared about the people, about this strange corrupt world we live in, and how any man who tried to be honest looks in the end either sentimental or plain foolish.
The two great private detectives of the hard school, Marlowe and Hammett's Sam Spade, were both code heroes, like those of Hemingway (whose style also had its influence on that school). As Leslie Fiedler has pointed out, Hemingway's heroes bear more than a superficial resemblance to the Western heroes of popular culture. Consciously or unconsciously, the classic private eye represents an attempt to transfer the man with a code from the lost Eden of the 19th-century American West to the modern Jungle of the Cities. Hammett was the first to make the attempt in the pulp magazines of the 20's. His original private eye, the Continental Op, discovered that his code of personal conduct, which consisted mostly of "doing the job," was inadequate to cope with the magnitude of the evil opposed to him. Hammett, a leftist, regarded moral evil as economically determined, and though his detective remained apolitical, his books, nevertheless, drew a political lesson. Since Hammett was a writer first and a political animal second, during the four years in which he wrote his novels he never tried to supply his heroes with social consciousness. Rather, they seemed to cling more and more desperately to the code of "the job." Sam Spade actually turns in his girl to the police rather than defile the code. Hammett himself, however, grew increasingly aware of the distance between the code and his political beliefs. He wrote "The Thin Man," a slick crime comedy with no moral tow whatever, in 1932, and then fell silent, unable to bridge the gap between his special skills as a writer and his political beliefs. In 1939 Chandler published his first novel, The Big Sleep, and introduced Marlowe to the world. His tales would not be as bloody or as smoothly fast-moving as Hammett's, but Marlowe would prove to be a character of more depth than any Hammett ever created.
Marlowe rarely tangled with the kind of organized crime that the Continental Op encountered in Red Harvest. He was called upon only to pit his private morality against private immorality. Even so, the literary left tried to claim Marlowe for its own, tried to invest his struggle against evil with political significance. Chandler resented this deeply. As far as he was concerned, politics was merely an extension of criminality by legal, but certainly not moral, means; he never fell victim to the kind of inner conflict that silenced Hammett.
Still, like it or not, Marlowe was a class figure. He was most believable when there were distinct differences between the styles of the rich, or at least upper middle class, and lower middle class. He began to seem a little out of place in the prosperous 50's, when even college professors were being cut in on the wealthiest society in human history. His stubborn refusal to join up with the rest of society seemed more eccentric than heroic, more adolescent than mature. Ian Fleming's James Bond, that cold, amoral, elegant killer, replaced Marlowe as our prime fictional detective. Curiously, in the fragment of the novel which Chandler left unfinished when he died in 1959, he had married Marlowe off—to an heiress, no less. The idea was not his; it was a friend's. But it is easy to see why it had a certain appeal to the writer. Besides giving him a new situation in which to place his man, it also made him seem less unnatural. Marlowe had begun to suffer from cultural lag.
Chandler was not happy with the marriage although he gave it a good try. "The contest between what she wants Marlowe to do and what he will insist on doing will make a good subplot," he insisted in one note. "I don't know how it will turn out, but she'll never tame him."
This was the first entirely new novel Chandler attempted after the death of his wife, an event which had sent him off on a monumental drunk and a bungled suicide attempt; and there is something touching about his attempt to give Marlowe the marital stability he had enjoyed but which he had now lost. The symbiotic relationship between a writer and an ongoing character has rarely been made more clear, and mere is, obviously, a relationship between Chandler's dedication as a writer and Marlowe's as a detective. They are different manifestations of the same impulse to professionalism.
The last letter in the present collection is to me friend who had suggested marriage for Marlowe, and by now Chandler has strong reservations about the match. Chandler writes:
A fellow of Marlowe's type shouldn't get married, because he is a lonely man, a poor man, a dangerous man, and yet a sympathetic man, and somehow none of this goes with marriage. I think he will always have a fairly shabby office, a lonely house, a number of affairs, but no permanent connection. I mink he will always be awakened at some inconvenient hour by some inconvenient person to do some inconvenient job. It seems to me mat this is his destiny—possibly not the best destiny in the world, but it belongs to him. No one will ever beat him, because by his nature he is unbeatable. No one will ever make him rich, because he is destined to be poor. But somehow, I think he would not have it otherwise. . . . I see him always in a lonely street, in lonely rooms, puzzled but never quite defeated. . . .
It is a measure of the specific gravity of Chandler's creation mat the writer's final summing up of the Marlowe character does not seem pretentious and that in his work mere is ample evidence to support it. It is a measure of the private eye's decline that no fictional operative today could possibly elicit such a description. Chandler, in his concern with the real psychological issues of his time, and in his ability to focus these issues by his excellent anti-hero, was at least me equal of a middle rank "serious" novelist—perhaps the equal, on occasion, of a first-rate one.
1 Edited by Dorothy Gardiner and Kathrine Sorley Walker, Houghton Mifflin, 271 pp., $4.00.


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By Sgt. Stephanie L. Carl, USASpecial to American Forces Press Service
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Jan. 7, 2005 "I volunteered to deploy in another medic's place," Army Staff Sgt. Joseph P. Buhain said. But when he volunteered to deploy, he didn't know what he was in for.
Eight months and two combat zones later, the Task Force 168 medic has experience and memories he will never leave behind.
Buhain, a respiratory specialist from Rochester, Minn., was activated as a medic, one of his two military occupational specialties. He received just four days to prepare before he reported to Fort Hood, Texas, for mobilization and to meet his new chain of command. TF 168 was set to deploy to Afghanistan, where Buhain would serve as a unit augmentee.
After he reported to Fort Hood, a paperwork mishap led Buhain to Fort Bliss, Texas, where he received orders to Baghdad, Iraq. "When we landed in Baghdad, we took enemy fire," said Buhain. "The whole time I was thinking, 'I'm not even supposed to be here.'"
Buhain knew he belonged with TF 168 in Afghanistan, and he also knew it would take time for the proper orders to make their way into his hands. While he waited for this to happen, Buhain found a home and a job with the 31st Combat Support Hospital.
He was surrounded by the horrors of war, but determined to do what he could to help. "Iraq was an eye-opener for me," he said. "In the month of May I dealt with 65 deaths."
That's just one month of the five Buhain spent in Iraq. "I saw so much horror," he said. "Sometimes I knelt down to pray with other soldiers. I held the hands of others during their last moments."
Through it all, Buhain never lost his faith. "Iraq was very desponding, but I learned a lot. I learned to respect the value of life, to respect our country. I learned what our flag really means," he said. "I learned that old or young, it doesn't matter; it's about unity, taking it one day at a time to survive."
Buhain also learned to respect other coalition members. "I watched Poles, Australians, Brits, and even my own Filipinos die," he said. "Iraq was hard, but touching. If I could go back in time, I would go again. My brothers are still there fighting."
But Buhain now has another role to fill. After five months in Iraq, he finally received the correct orders, arriving in Afghanistan in September to fill his role as the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team medical noncommissioned officer in charge. No longer surrounded by death in a combat support hospital, he is seeing a different side of combat.
"Through everything, I've met so many people. I've felt pain, anger and depression. When I got here, I hated everything," he said. "But now I see the difference. (Here) we're transitioning and rebuilding. It lets me know that there's definitely hope.
"I still visualize all the terrible things I've seen -- I have nights I can't sleep. But it's good for me," he said, adding that the memories remind him why he's here.
"People call me a hero, but I'm not," he said. "It's nice to be called a hero, but the heroes are the men and women who died. I'm alive now because of those who died. And I think it's all worth it. I know I would be willing to give my life for my country."
(Army Sgt. Stephanie L. Carl is assigned to the 17th Public Affairs Detachment.)


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Michaels hosts open house Saturday in Corpus Christi
CORPUS CHRISTI - KNIT/CROCHET CLASSES/OPEN HOUSE AT MICHAELS: An open house at Michaels, S. Padre Island Drive is from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. See new projects and yarns. (You can purchase future classes at 50 percent off). A Lion Brand demo is from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday with instructor Margaret Neu. See new projects with Lion Brand yarns. Discover Kids Crochet II class is from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Sunday. Cost: $15. The next class of Discover Knit Stitches is from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Thursday. Cost: $25. Yarn night is from 2-6 p.m. Sept. 29. Cost: $5/come-and-go knitting and crochet get-together. Information: 851-9360.
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- Attorney General Brad D. Schimel
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This Google™ translation feature is provided for informational purposes only.
The Office of the Attorney General is unable to guarantee the accuracy of this translation and is therefore not liable for any inaccurate information resulting from the translation application tool.
Please consult with a translator for accuracy if you are relying on the translation or are using this site for official business.Contact the Department of Justice
MADISON - Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen issued the following statement this afternoon in response to the Milwaukee Police Department's report on the 2004 general election that was issued today:
Yesterday afternoon, investigators from the Milwaukee Police Department delivered to me a copy of the Department's Report of the Investigation into the November 2, 2004 General Election in the City of Milwaukee. The report's detailing of election irregularities in 2004 is extraordinarily troublesome. It is, unfortunately, not surprising.
The right to vote is the most fundamental of all political freedoms. But it isn't simply the right to vote that protects our democracy; it is the right to vote in fair elections, untainted by election fraud. Make no mistake. The dilution of one's lawful vote through the unlawful casting of ballots is a dilution of the most fundamental of our political freedoms.
In Wisconsin, enforcement of the election laws is a multi-agency responsibility involving the Government Accountability Board's Election Division, law enforcement, and prosecutors. Prior to the release of this report, we at the Department of Justice have been in regular communication with the Government Accountability Board and Milwaukee prosecutors concerning compliance with the state's election laws. I have also established a working group of attorneys and investigators to assist our partners as the 2008 general election approaches.
In addition to enforcing the laws we have and facilitating compliance with those laws, new laws would help. As I testified before the legislature last year, I continue to believe that requiring photographic identification at the polls is the best way to ensure against voter fraud. Law should make voting easy. But laws should not make illegal voting easy.
This problem must be examined at the national level as well. To that end, I have joined a task force of attorneys general from throughout the country to address issues relating to election integrity.
I am committed to safeguarding the right to vote, and I will continue to actively work with my public agency partners in our mutual mission to enhance election integrity.


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Ancelotti replaces Jose Mourinho, who had alienated the entire dressing room during a miserable spell at the Bernabeu.
"I am pleased Ancelotti has come to Madrid," Ramos told reporters. "I can only speak highly of him, from what his CV says and what I know of his work.
"We must recognize that Ancelotti has achieved great things at some of the best clubs in Europe.
"If you have achieved these sorts of things, it is because you bring together a number of values that bring the best out of every player."


text:
Submitted by Kim
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The E.S.L. Dating Diaries:
November 14, 2012 at 5:26 am
They were close, he wants bacon for his birthday.
Didi Paris:
November 17, 2012 at 11:07 pm
Bring on the birthday meat platter! :)
Atli Viðar Hafsteinsson:
November 14, 2012 at 8:19 am
"Typical boy stuff"? Screw that, sans Angry Birds it should be called "awesome stuff".
Jonathan Ross Buckham:
November 17, 2012 at 11:05 pm
I want beef, bacon, and other assorted meats for my birthday. Donations welcome! :)
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Surgical apparatus for propelling an epidural electrode (22) in an epidural needle (29), including a frame (41) having opposite inlet and outlet apertures for enabling axial passage of the electrode therethrough along a first axis of the frame, a pair of rollers (54, 57) mounted for rotation in the frame about further parallel axes orthogonal to the first axis, the rollers being configured and positioned to laterally engage the electrode therebetween, a driving interconnection (55, 60) between the rollers for simultaneous rotation about their axes in opposite directions to cause linear movement of the electrode along the first axis, disconnectable braking member (62) for opposing the rotation of said rollers while an electrode is being advanced and for allowing said rollers to rotate freely while the frame is being removed from an electrode, and an actuator (61) extending beyond the frame for causing rotation of the rollers. The frame may be configured (170) or cut to facilitate its removal from the needle by spreading or fracture, and an elastic band (174) may surround the frame to oppose unintended fracture.
1. Apparatus for advancing or withdrawing an epidural electrode comprising, in combination:
a frame having opposite inlet and outlet apertures for enabling axial passage of the electrode therethrough along a first axis of the frame;
a pair of rollers mounted for rotation in said frame about further parallel axes orthogonal to said first axis, said rollers being configured and positioned to laterally engage the electrodes therebetween;
disconnectable braking means for opposing the rotation of said rollers; while an electrode is being advanced and for allowing said rollers to rotate freely while the frame is being removed from an electrode; and
actuation means extending beyond said frame for causing rotation of at least one of said rollers.
2. Apparatus according to claim 1 further including means for removably mounting an epidural needle in said outlet aperture close to said rollers to guide said electrode after it leaves said rollers.
3. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said rollers have grooves in their surfaces for engaging said epidural electrode.
4. Apparatus according to claim 1 in which the interconnecting means comprises a pair of intermeshing pinions rotatable about said further axes integrally with said rollers and in which said actuation means comprises a handle connected to one of said rollers.
5. Apparatus according to claim 1 in which said one of said rollers includes a shaft pivoted in said frame and said actuation means includes a shaft secured thereto.
6. Apparatus according to claim 1 in which said frame is almost severed by a cut or gap in a plane parallel to said axes of said rollers and containing said first axis, to enable said frame to be spread for easy separation from said needle.
7. Apparatus according to claim 1 further including resilient means surrounding said frame generally in a plane perpendicular to said cut, to normally oppose fracture of said frame.
8. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said braking means comprises a U-shaped spring slidably mounted around said frame for applying a frictional breaking force to at least one of said rollers.
9. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said rollers are interconnected for simultaneous rotation about their axes in opposite directions, to cause linear movement of said electrode along said first axes.
10. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein a stylet is removably attached to one end of the electrode for manipulating the electrode outside the X-ray field.
11. Apparatus for propelling an epidural electrode axially through an X-ray field comprising, in combination:
a pair of rollers grooved and positioned to jointly engage said electrode laterally, whereby rotation of said rollers accompanies movement of an electrode engaged by said grooves along its axes;
disengagable braking means for opposing the rotation of said rollers;
means mounting said rollers adjacent an epidural needle in the X-ray field so that said electrode as it leaves said rollers is aligned with the bore of said needle;
manually actuable means extending beyond said field for causing rotation of at least one of said rollers.
12. Apparatus according to claim 11 wherein said mounting means includes a housing, said housing having a cut or gap part way through to facilitate separation of the propelling apparatus from the electrode by spreading of the housing.
This invention relates to the field of surgery, and particularly to a method and apparatus for facilitating the insertion of epidural electrodes in the treatment of patients by spinal cord stimulation.
A known technique for the management of chronic intractable pain of the trunk and limbs is the application of pulsed electrical stimulation through nerve structures in the dorsal aspect of the spinal cord. Spinal cord stimulation may be used either as a sole mitigating agent or as an adjunct to other modes of therapy.
The operative procedure involved comprises inserting a flexible electrode into the patient's epidural space, by passing it between two selected vertebrae and then advancing it under fluoroscopic observation until its end reaches the appropriate spinal level. Use is made of an epidural needle to guide the electrode past the bony structure and direct it properly into and along the epidural space.
An epidural lead or electrode is of necessity an elongated, highly flexible object, and difficulty is frequently encountered in advancing the electrode to its desired site. The procedure has the disadvantage that in order to advance the electrode the surgeon's hands must be in the fluroscopic field and hence subject to X-ray exposure. For the surgeon who frequently performs such electrode implant procedures, this involves undesirable repeated exposure to X-rays.
The present invention comprises an instrument for association with an epidural needle to facilitate advance of a lead or electrode therethrough, while at the same time enabling the surgeon to perform the necessary manual operations at a site outside the X-ray field. This is accomplished by providing a frame containing a pair of rollers which engage the electrode laterally, the frame being removably securable to an epidural needle and having a handle, for causing roller rotation, which is long enough to extend out of the X-ray field. One embodiment of the invention is especially designed to simplify removal from the needle after use with minimum danger of disturbing the implanted electrode.
Various advantages and features of novelty which characterize the invention are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed hereto and forming a part hereof. However, for a better understanding of the invention, its advantages, and objects attained by its use, reference should be had to the drawing which forms a further part hereof, and to the accompanying descriptive matter, in which there are illustrated and described certain preferred embodiments of the invention.
In the drawing, in which like reference numerals indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views,
FIG. 1 is a schematic view illustrative of a prior art operative procedure of implanting an epidural electrode;
FIG. 2 is a view in perspective of an instrument embodying the invention;
FIG. 3 is a view to a larger scale in section along the line 3--3 of FIG. 2;
FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the instrument along the broken line 4--4 of FIG. 3;
FIG. 5 is an exploded view of a portion of the invention; and
FIG. 6 is a fragmentary view showing a second embodiment of the invention.
Attention is first directed to FIG. 1 in which the spinal cord of a patient is indicated by reference numeral 20. The spinal cord is surrounded by the epidural space 21 along which a stimulation electrode or lead 22 is to be advanced to the appropriate spinal site for stimulation. Vertebrae are shown at 23, 24, 25, and 26. An incision 27 has been made to the depth of the subcutaneous fascia 28, and an epidural needle 29 has been inserted between vertebrae 24 and 25, through which an electrode 22 has been fed and is being advanced through the epidural space, in the direction of arrow 30, to a desired location. Needle 29 has a bend 31 at its outer end, to deflect the electrode along the epidural space in a desired direction.
Advancement of the electrode is effected in FIG. 1 by grasping the mounting flange 32 of the needle and feeding lead 22 into the needle. Inspection of FIG. 1 willl make it clear that manually advancing such a flexible elongated element as lead 22 into and through needle 29 can present considerable mechanical difficulty, and also will require the surgeon's hands to be close to flange 32 and hence in the X-ray field which is necessarily present if the procedure is to be properly monitored. This can lead to undesirable repeated exposure to X-rays for a surgeon who frequently performs such procedures. To avoid these problems, the invention comprises an advancer 40, designed to be removably secured to flange 32 of needle 29, by which the electrode can be reliably and conveniently fed into the needle by rotating a handle outside the X-ray field.
As seen in FIG. 2, an electrode or lead 22 comprises a very flexible coil 33 of very fine wire having a short solid tip 34 at one end and surrounding a stylet 35 of solid but still quite flexible wire. A handle 36 includes a clevis 37 to secure one end of coil 33, stylet 35 continuing to a knob 38 to facilitate electrical connections. Handle 36 is of appreciable length to enable a surgeon to keep his hands out of the X-ray field on the patient's back.
FIGS. 2-5 show that advancer 40 comprises a frame 41, conveniently of plastic, having the general form of a short tube of rectangular cross section. A first wall 42 of the frame has an aperture 43 sized to pass electrode 22, and a second, opposite wall 44 has a larger aperture 45 in which flange 32 of needle 29 may be removably secured coaxial with aperture 43. Flange 32 is non-circular so that it does not rotate in aperture 45. A third wall 46 has a pair of pivot holes 47, 50, and a fourth wall 51 has a second pair of pivot holes 52, 53 coaxial with the holes of the first pair.
A first pivot pin 53 passes in pivotal relation through apertures 47 and 52 to extend beyond wall 51. A first roller 54 is press fit on pin 53, and includes a pinion 55 which may be integral with the roller if desired. A second pivot pin 56 passes in pivotal relation through apertures 50 and 53, and a second roller 57 is press fit on pin 56 and likewise includes a pinion 60. Pins 53 and 56 have parallel axes, and are spaced to enable proper engagement between pinions 55 and 60. An extensional handle 61 is friction fit on shaft 53 outside of frame 41, and serves as the actuation member for advancing the lead. Specifically, the arrangement is such that rotation of handle 61 causes rotation of roller 53 in frame 41, so that by reason of pinions 55 and 60 roller 57 is also driven. Under some conditions pinions 55 and 60 may be omitted, only roller 54 being driven by handle 61.
A U-shaped spring 62 sliding in grooves 63 and 64 in frame 41 bears sideways against the ends of pin 56 to give a braking effect.
Rollers 54 and 57 are located on opposite sides of the axis of apertures 43 and 45, and are configured with grooves 65 and 66 respectively, of such location and depth as to laterally engage an electrode 22 passing between them and to advance it or withdraw it axially depending on the direction of rotation of the rollers. This can be done while the user holds handles 36 and 61 at sites outside the X-ray field. The procedure is facilitated by the fact that needle 29 when inserted in the patient's spine is quite rigidly held in place by anatomical structures not specifically shown in FIG. 1.
FIG. 6 shows a modification of the invention which has some practical advantages. Parts identical with those in FIG. 5 are given the same reference numerals in the 100 series. Frame 141 is also in the form of a tube of rectangular cross-section. Wall 142 is provided with an aperture, not shown, like aperture 43 of FIG. 5. Wall 124 has aperture 145 to receive the needle flange in non-rotating relationship. Wall 146 has apertures 147 and 150, and wall 151 has apertures 152 and 153, to receive the pivotal pins and rollers as before. The difference between this frame and that of FIG. 5 is that the frame is divided almost completely in half by a cut 170 which defines a plane passing through the axis of apertures 143 and 145 and parallel to the pivot pin axes. The cut completely severs wall 146, and severs all of walls 142, 144, and 151 except a very thin portion which remains as an integral hinge 171 between portions 172 and 173 of the frame. An elastic band 174 surrounds frame 141 above the axis of apertures 143 and 145, to prevent the hinge from being inadvertently broken: it may be removed temporarily when a needle 29 is to be inserted into aperture 145.
To use the instrument, a patient is prepared, the incision 27 is made, the fluoroscope is positioned, and a needle 31 is inserted between the appropriate vertebrae until its end 31 enters the patient's epidural space. Advancer 40 of FIGS. 2-5 is now positioned so that flange 32 of needle 29 enters aperture 45 and snaps in place: needle 29 may now be directed and rotated by manipulation of handle 61. An assembled electrode 22, stylet 35 and handle 36 is now fed, solid end 34 first, through aperture 43, between rollers 54 and 57, through flange 32 in aperture 45 and along needle 29 until it appears at bend 31. Unless deliberately manipulated, needle 29 retains its position, and by use of handle 61 the gradual feeding of the electrode through the needle and into the epidural space is accomplished without exposure of the surgeon to the X-ray field.
When tip 34 has reached a desired site, the electrode is removed from handle 36, and frame 41 is carefully removed from needle flange 32, fluoroscopic monitoring being maintained to be sure that the electrode is not disturbed. Now needle 29 is withdrawn from the patient leaving the electrode behind, the stylet is withdrawn from the coil, and the wound is closed by appropriate measures, the electrode remaining implanted in the patient for spinal cord stimulation as the symptoms dictate.
The operation of the invention using the embodiment of FIG. 6 is the same as described above, except that removal of frame 141 after the lead has been advanced is simplified. The elastic band 174 is cut and the frame is broken or simply spread along the line of hinge 171, allowing removal with almost no reactive forces on needle 29 which might otherwise tend to disturb it, the advancer being discarded if broken or reused with another elastic band if simply spread.
From the foregoing it will be clear that the invention comprises an adjunct instrument for use in implanting spinal cord stimulation electrodes in the epidural spaces of patients, with added convenience and minimum likelihood of electrode damage during the operation, and with removal of the surgeon's hands from the X-ray field.
Referenziert von


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Current as of: March 12, 2014
Author: Healthwise Staff
Medical Review: John Pope, MD - Pediatrics & Brian D. O'Brien, MD - Internal Medicine & Steven C. Schachter, MD - Neurology
Epilepsy is a disorder that causes repeated seizures. Seizures may cause problems with muscle control, movement, speech, vision, or awareness. They usually don't last very long, but they can be scary.
Most people are able to control their seizures with medicines. Some people outgrow epilepsy and no longer have seizures.
Current as of: March 12, 2014
Author: Healthwise Staff
Medical Review: John Pope, MD - Pediatrics & Brian D. O'Brien, MD - Internal Medicine & Steven C. Schachter, MD - Neurology
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What does TOX mean in Military?
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Do you know the weight of a new, Rock Island .38 Special ? If I buy one (for $255), do you think I can find a Rock Island holster to fit it?
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A few months back I had a brother police officer approach me to ask if I knew anything about Rock Island pistols. He had heard, through that very carefully controlled information service we all know as the rumor mill, that the guns were decent and cost effective. Read "decent" and "cost effective" to mean "perform acceptably" and "don't cost as much as premium grade pistols". I had never heard of Rock Island Armory before, but it bothers me when I get questions that I can't even begin to research properly (since I didn't know the answer) and I made it a point to find out something about Rock Island. What I found out is that it's hard to find out much about them. There are some being sold by dealers you can find on the internet. There is mention of Rock Island .45s on numberous discussion boards online. I had no success in finding a Rock Island Armory website nor in locating a headquarters for Rock Island Armory. Further research revealed why…
From what I've been able to ascertain, "Rock Island Armory" is a trade name for a Phillipino gun manufacturer. I haven't been able to pin down the company. The .45s are relatively simple – not fitted with contemporary upgrades, design changes, etc. The Rock Island Armory .45s are almost completely basic GI .45s the way they were years and years ago. Almost…
I finally managed to get my hands on a Rock Island Armory .45ACP pistol. The one I found is in "Officer's Model" trim with a three inch barrel and six round magazine capacity. My cost for the pistol was $300, and that's not far off what I've found others for on the internet through various firearms dealers. $300-$350 seems a common range for these pistols.
The pistol, as I received it, came with one 6-round magazine that fits flush into the mag well, and an additional 7-round magazine which protrudes about 1/4″ when locked in. My pistol has a blued finish, but I've found information that indicates the Rock Island Armory pistols are also available in a parkerized finish. The blueing on my pistol is smooth with no sign of blemishes. The fit seems good with little play in the slide to frame mating. The grips on it are plain wood. Both the front and rear sight are dovetailed in, and the rear sight has an allen screw that keeps it locked in place.
After I field stripped the weapon I took a closer look at the slide and frame. Some of the corners on the slide looked soft, as if the milling wasn't as carefully controlled as it should have been, but "soft" corners aren't usually considered a bad thing. If it had looked dehorned, I'd have been happy. But some of the corners look soft while others are sharp (I got a cut on my thumb cleaning the pistol and I still don't know where it came from). The feed ramp on the frame was polished, but didn't look smooth. I was beginning to have my suspicions. Double-checking, I found the feed ramp to indeed be nice and smooth – as if someone had polished it and it had never been fired. From the pictures you can see the Commander style hammer and beavertail memory-groove grip safety. All in all, before taking it to the range, I was happy with the fit and finish – for a $300 pistol.
At the range I started out using the magazines that came with the pistol and regular 230g FMJ ammo. After about three rounds the pistol didn't return to battery after recoil and when I looked I saw why. The recoil spring guide rod was sticking out the front end of the weapon past the bushing meant to retain it. Clearing the weapon I field stripped it, reassembled it, and headed back down the range. Two rounds later I had the same situation. Once again clearing the weapon, I put it in its box and put it away. Until I had a chance to check into that, I wouldn't be shooting the weapon any more. Thanks to the insights and efforts of a friend of mine, it was discovered that someone – prior to my having recieved the pistol – had decided to make it smoother and faster by chopping a piece off of the recoil spring. Slick… Once a regular size Officer's Model recoil spring was in place, and the weapon was cleaned, back to the range I went.
This time I had no issues with the recoil spring. I went through about 200 rounds of hardball ammo (that 230g FMJ) before switching over to Federal HydraShok. Neither cartridge showed any feed, firing or ejection problems. After about one hundred rounds I had one stovepipe, but I can't say for sure that it was the weapons fault. It was certainly dirty, but I was intentionally limp-wristing the pistol in that string of shots to see how easy it was to induce a malfunction. I got one stovepipe out of the magazine.
After oiling the weapon – because it was pretty dirty and I know how difficult some .45s can be, I loaded up my magazines with frangible ammo so I could shoot some steel. Bad move. No matter what magazines I used, the pistol just didn't want to feed the frangible ammo. I had misfeed after misfeed, with the nose of the bullets never even getting off the feed ramp. Clearance drills resulted in nothing but live rounds being dropped to the ground as the weapon refused to feed the mildly truncated cone shape of the frangible bullets. No steel pinging for me that day. You can see how dirty the gun ended up below. Just for the record I was shooting Winchester 230g FMJ ammo through most of the range time.
Accuracy of the weapon was acceptable. I certainly wouldn't want it as my primary duty weapon, but off-duty in plain clothes, it would suffice. I had no trouble keeping my shots inside of a four inch circle at seven yards, and while that's no great shakes, it's sufficient for personal defense work. And after all, that's pretty much what a pistol like this is designed for. It's not a duty weapon. It's not meant for precision pistol work at twenty-five yards. It's meant to be carried concealed and only used in last-ditch up-close and dirty emergency life threatening situations.
While clean and properly lubricated, the pistol ate through magazines of the HydraShok ammo as fast as I could pull the trigger. The slide-stop never failed to function and reloads were smooth. Again, note that I said "clean and properly lubricated". I wouldn't want this gun on me in the open field for combat work… but in the urban jungles of our American cities, it is a good defense tool against the skulking vermin. Teamed up with a decent knife, and backed up with at least one magazine (for a total of fourteen rounds on your person: 6+1 in the gun and 7 more in the spare magazine), this Rock Island Armory pistol is an acceptable tool. Given its performance versus its price, it's exceptional.
So, when some friend or workmate of yours asks about the Rock Island Armory pistols, you can tell them what you know: They are cost effective copies of the original 1911 pistols. They function when kept in proper condition and are worth what they're sold for. My price was $300 and I think it was worth it… but I'll still put on my Glock 36 instead of the Rock Island Armory pistol simply for the reliability of the weapon. After all, what's your life worth to you?
Do you know the weight of a new, Rock Island .38 Special ? If I buy one (for $255), do you think I can find a Rock Island holster to fit it?
Do the hammerless (internal hammers) revolvers have secure holsters to keep the revolver secure on one's waist?
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Close your pir hole idiot. If you have something worth while we would love to hear it. If this is the dribble you intend to shop, SSSHHHHHHHHHH.... no one cares.
You need to switch teams if you want this man as your coach. He will have major issues with the press once he gets rolling. THe man can not help himself and his classless ways. OSU will have issues as long as this man is the coach.
Lavar Arrington needs to grow up. He was lazy and underacheiving and now he's running away.
The former players argue that the assistants under peterno took over most of the duties over the past years and are more ready to take over the team. WHAT.... they team is slow and underachieves on offense on a consistant basis. This team needed a new outside coach for years now. Besides, you don't run from your family because you do not like a decision. You close your pie hole and keep supporting your family. BIG BABIES
Letsgostate, get your head out of your butt. WHat the hell does raping a child have to do with rioting. REad page 6 and 7 and tell me that the 60's havea anything to do with being a man and steping up. Its idiots like you who allow this based on what you feel makes your life work. IT IS NEVER right and the spoiled students need to get there life relations in a moral order.
NOW... and take McQuery with yiu... If you can find him....
Dean Cassady should be placed on the Board.
First, they need to stop the bleeding, get a plan in place and have someone implement and move forward on it. That person should be someone that can start he process and open any door by name. Next, put in place someone who is willing to taje the position long term, complete the process and move the scholl forward. That person will be harder to find and should be well vetted. No time for that, so TOm Ridge is a good choice in the short term.
The Gov of PA is over the Board in the end. PERIOD.
I think they would be wise to retire before the Gov gets to the Trustee meeting Friday. He is the Boss in the end. Being a new gov he needs to take the same stand when he was going after preditors in his last position. Take down all who did nothing gov. PLEASE
Regardless of the findings in the end, It is imperative, we as adults protect the weak. Regardless if it is a child, a women, a person or animal being bullied or taking advantage of. There is no excuse for this. It Known by all in this country that institutions cover up whatever they can to protect the collective. In this case, a member of PSU saw something that made him very upset. He reported it and the cover up began. As a graduate, I am proud of the people I studied under and the degree I earned. I am appalled at the behavior of the institution, this is beyond the pale and it must be cleaned up.
Contact these people to get this cleaned up. They are the board. They need to remove evreyone who knew and took just enough action to get by.
THOMAS W. CORBETT, JR. *Governor, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
GRAHAM B. SPANIER President, The Pennsylvania State University (Secretary of the Board of Trustees)
GEORGE D. GREIG Secretary, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture
RICHARD J. ALLAN Secretary, Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
RONALD J. TOMALIS Secretary, Pennsylvania Department of Education
THEY ALL NEED TO GO......... I also want to know whay kids were allowed to stay at that house after the state checked report.
Spanier, CUrley ans Schultz should be let go NOW........ Joe and McQuery need to go also, yes you reported it, but you took part in continuing to let this animal on the Campus. TYPICAL college hiding the dirty laundry,


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Welcome to the Career and Counseling Center at Southern Polytechnic State University. Our office is committed to helping students develop career and life planning skills, acquire work experience, master job search strategies and seek rewarding employment.
Located in the Joe Mack Wilson Student Center, our office also assists students and recent graduates in the related disciplines of resume composition, interviewing, securing Internships/Co-op opportunities and seeking part-time and full-time employment.
Though many resources are available through this website, students are urged to visit the office to meet with a staff member or attend one of the many skillshops offered each semester on campus.
The Career and Counseling Center at Southern Polytechnic State University refers candidates to employment opportunities without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or age. The Department also complies with those EEO regulations affecting handicapped individuals, disabled veterans, and veterans of the Vietnam Era.


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Full detailed profile on Melissande "Mel" Boudreau Bauer Played by Yvonna Kopacz Wright on Guiding Light Daytime Soap Opera.
Yvonna Wright
Birthday: 1972-01-08
Remy runs into his sister outside. He complains that his bank account is on life support. He wants to help Christina. She suggests he talk to their father. He refuses. Mel tells him to get over himself and directs him over to Towers to see Clayton.
Remy paces while his sister looks over the divorce papers. He admits that he is in love with Christina. He does everything backwards. "I don't need to know that you are in love with Christina. She does," Mel advises.
Remy and Christina meet Mel at the courthouse. She tells them that once the papers are signed, it's over and they can't take it back. Remy blames himself for blowing everything for her and refuses to continue lying. Mel suggests that they don't rush. Remy signs the papers. "I don't want to lie anymore," he says. Christina doesn't either so she signs. "That's it," Mel explains.
Mel runs into Remy at the mini mart and asks him what he's doing today. He wants to go home to bed. She tells him to say 'hello' to Christina.
Remy arrives at Company. Ashlee tells him that Christina doesn't want to talk to him. He has a beer. His mother and sisters sneak in and yell 'surprise'. They pull out the party hats and Felicia tells the story of Remy's birth. This year, he has shown her what a wonderful man he is. They offer him cake. He's sad. As they sit him down and ask him to make a wish, Christina arrives, followed by Mallet and Lizzie. Remy and Christina step aside. Neither of them has told anyone they are splitting up. Mel begins handing Remy gifts. She got him some concert tickets but put Christina's name on the envelope.
Shayne chases down Dinah outside of the courthouse. She needs to know if Doris will be pressing charges against her; she can't let this hang over her head anymore. He tells her she needs her strength and hands her some energy drinks. She'd rather have his cheeseburger. After she pouts, he agrees to share. As they sit and eat, Doris comes out and meets them. Dinah wants to be charged. Doris says that it's doubtful it will happen. Lizzie won't press charges and this case won't do anything for Doris' career. After Doris walks away, Dinah trudges off to find a way to make herself pay. She paces and tries to come up with something. When she gets an idea, she runs off. Jeffrey sends Shayne a message about the birth. Shayne runs away as Dinah returns with Mel. She tells the lawyer that she wants to sue herself. Mel is baffled. Doris comes out for a smoke and Dinah explains that she will sue herself on behalf of the citizens of Springfield. Mallet and Marina arrive and wonder how this is supposed to help. Dinah explains this is her way of making a public gesture to say how sorry she is. Marina offers to testify. Mel agrees to represent Dinah and Doris offers to put the case on immediately. Dinah calls Ashlee to get a camera crew down there.
Remy and Christina are at Company. She is narrowing down her class list when Mel walks in. She offers to help her out. Remy rushes off to see Daisy. Mel helps Christina out until she's called away. Leah arrives. She has to pick out her classes for Springfield U. Christina sits down to help her.
Mel meets with Reva and tells her that no judge will give Jeffrey custody. She will have to counter sue for soul custody though. Reva sighs.
When Mel goes to see Jeffrey, he tells her how much he loves Reva. She's been the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to him. He could raise the baby alone, but he doesn't want to. He needs to do it with her by his side. "No one has ever loved me like that," Mel says.
Doris meets with Reva before the trial. She tells her how much fun this is. Reva can't understand how she can be having fun with her life like this. As she rants at Doris, she has pains and has to sit down. Doris feels her belly and the baby kicks. Reva tells her that the baby is a miracle and it's her job to take care of him. Doris walks to Jeffrey's office and tells him he's on his own. She explains what just happened. "This is a whole new you," he observes. "Don't worry. It'll go away. It always does," she says. Simultaneously, Mel returns to Reva and tells her that she can't take her case and explains what Jeffrey told her and how profoundly he loves her. Before Reva, he could have never felt what he does.
« Back to Melissande "Mel" Boudreau Bauer profile


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New Instructor Orientation
Welcome to teaching and to Penn State! Good teaching involves planning, lots of it and at every level. While there is no one-size-fits-all strategy for good teaching, happily there are a few activities that do seem to make a difference. As a new instructor, we encourage you to make use of all of our programs and resources as well as those provided by your department and college.
The online New Instructor Orientation is a self-directed workshop administered through ANGEL, Penn State's course management system.
The purpose of the New Instructor Orientation workshop is to provide faculty with a brief introduction to Penn State resources and processes crucial to good teaching and planning.
New Instructor Orientation is free and open to all instructors at Penn State. In order to receive the letter of completion you will need to complete two assignments.
The fall 2015 course begins on August 17. Registration for the fall session ends at noon on September 30. All classwork must be completed and uploaded by 11:59 p.m. on October 2.
Registered participants will receive an email with ANGEL access information.
Registration opens August 1.
Graduate student instructors
Completion of the New Instructor Orientation satisfies a requirement of the Graduate School Teaching Certificate.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where can I find out more information about Penn State and Penn State students?
A rich source of data about Penn State students is the Educational Planning Survey . All new students are asked to complete this survey, which includes questions about the student's background and interests. It was developed by the Division of Undergraduate Studies to facilitate students' educational development and is used in establishing programs to foster effective academic advising.
What should I do on the first day of class?
"The First Day of Class" from our book, The Penn State Teacher II, shares some practical advice for teachers who may be feeling some first-day jitters.
How can I prevent classroom management problems?
See appendix A, "Managing the Classroom and Relating to Students" (from The Penn State Teacher II) which offers tips for managing the classroom, dealing with disruptive students, helping students with personal problems, and other related issues.
Where can I find out more about Penn State policies and procedures regarding teaching?
The Academic and Administrative Policies and Procedures Manual answers questions on issues such as grading and course scheduling.
Do you have a question not answered here?
Please send it to us at email@example.com or call us at (814) 863-2599.


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Posted: April 1, 2013
The Airborne Toxic Event recently dropped by the Late Show with David Letterman, where they performed "Timeless." The anthemic ballad appears on new EP The Secret.
The host seemed to be a big fan of both the performance and the band's gear.
"God that was nice. I love that guitar. It's a beautiful guitar," said Letterman pointing at singer Mikel Jollet's Gretsch Black Falcon. "The Airborne Toxic Event – that was lovely."
See for yourself below …
Tags: David Letterman, Gretsch Black Falcon, The Airborne Toxic Event, Timeless live
Posted In: Artists Blogs | Leave a comment
Keep in touch with the latest Gretsch news, pictures and videos.
New From The Gretsch Blog.
What are you interested in?
View Past Blogs.


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You are now in touching distance of a goal you set yourself a long time ago. All it needs is one final push and you will cross the finishing line ahead of your rivals. Make the effort – it will be worth it.
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January 22, 2013 | 5:00am
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The Day the Earth Stood Still Movie Behind the Scenes – Featurette
Check out the new featurette for the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still.
"The Day the Earth Stood Still" is 20th Century Fox's contemporary reinvention of its 1951 classic. Keanu Reeves portrays Klaatu, an alien whose arrival on our planet triggers a global upheaval. As governments and scientists race to unravel the mystery behind the visitor's appearance, a woman (Jennifer Connelly) and her young stepson get caught up in his mission – and come to understand the ramifications of his being a self-described "friend to the Earth."
You can by The Day the Earth Stood Still movie posters at All Movie Replicas.


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text: The Senate appeared to reach a broad consensus late Thursday with a decisive 67-29 vote American citizens have a constitutional right to due process. No war on terrorism can trump this. If our judicial system cannot adequately cope with the "War on Terror" then it needs to evolve. Out of fear we must not freely give away our Freedom.


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I love her too! Piercing eyes.
hahahahahhahahaha Thank You Charlie!!!
Very good. You do eyes very well. The windows to the soul.
Thank You Laura!!!
Mysterious and haunting - very beautiful. Jim
Thank You Jim!!!
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Thank You Christine!!!
This is just wonderful. Another personal tutorial if viewed full size. Thank you for sharing.
The expression in the eyes is really good!
Thank You Jan & anantio!!!
Mesmerising eyes.
Thank You philo.yan!!!
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(images/info from www.cosme.net)
Jill Stuart will release its fall 2012 makeup collection in Japan on July 13th. The collection includes:
- Mix Blush Compact (above, 2 new variations, ¥4725)
- Pâtisserie Collection Sugar Glitter Eyes (5 shades, ¥2625)
- Pâtisserie Collection Custard Lip Pot (5 shades, ¥2100)
- Nail Lacquer N (5 new shades, ¥1575)
All the items in this collection are limited editions.
Updated on July 3rd, 2012:
See more images of the collection items at Biteki.com.
Updated on July 25th, 2012:
See additional items in the collection here.
Related posts:
Jill Stuart Summer 2012 Makeup Collection
Jill Stuart Summer Dress Collection (Overseas Exclusive)