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Versatile Gun Rack 1 Pistol Peg Board Gun Rack Vinyl Coated Steel Black
Product #: 784972 Versatile #: VER102110 UPC #: 611630102110
- Information
The Versatile Gun Rack 1 Pistol Peg Board Gun Rack is double vinyl coated for extra protection of a pistol's finish. This also includes a metal plate which may be mounted on any flat surface to hang the peg board rack.
Technical Information: Versatile Gun Rack 1 Pistol Pegboard Gun Rack
Technical Information: Versatile Gun Rack 1 Pistol Pegboard Gun Rack
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Product ships from MidwayUSA, separate from any other products on your order due to its size. Products that are Shipped Alone incur separate "Per Order" and "Per Pound" shipping charges.
Product is regulated by the US Department of Transportation (DOT) and cannot be shipped via USPS or air shipping methods. DOT-Regulated products must ship UPS Ground.
Product is restricted by shipping carriers and cannot be shipped to certain locations or via certain shipping methods.
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On this Christmas Eve, I want to dedicate this blog to the "Greatest Story" ever told.
On that first Christmas, God gave us the greatest gift of all, His son Jesus. I hope you will take time this Christmas to share the story of the Manger, the story of salvation, with your family and friends.
I want to share three posts I found on All Pro Dad. Tony Dungy, the former head coach for the Indianapolis Colts, helped launch the website in 1997.
Watch this moving video of the nativity story and remember tomorrow the gift God has given us.
Linus and the Christmas story
Did you know that more people have heard the Christmas story from Linus, the character in Peanuts, than from anybody else. And as you watch Linus share the greatest story of all, notice that he puts aside his ever-present security blanket… the only time in the comic strip he ever does so. From Linus, and all of us here at All Pro Dad, Merry Christmas!
Huddle up with your kids tonight and ask: Why do you think Linus let go of his security blanket in this scene?
You have a wonderful life
One of the greatest Christmas movies of all time, It's a Wonderful Life, highlights the life of an ordinary man, George Bailey, and paints of picture of what things would be like if he had never existed. It completely changed his perspective. If you're a little down during this Christmas season, realize how much you mean to your wife, your children, your other family and friends and how much worse off they would be if you were not in the picture. Your presence is truly their best present this Christmas.
Watch this classic scene from It's a Wonderful Life.
Huddle up and ask your kids tonight: What do you think is the greatest gift of all this Christmas?
Here is the story from the Bible.
Luke 1:26-38
(26) In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, (27) to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. (28) And he came to her and said, "Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!" (29) But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. (30) And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. (31) And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. (32) He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, (33) and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." (34) And Mary said to the angel, "How will this be, since I am a virgin?" (35) And the angel answered her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy–the Son of God. (36) And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. (37) For nothing will be impossible with God." (38) And Mary said, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her.
Matthew 1:18-25
Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. (19) And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. (20) But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. (21) She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." (22) All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: (23) "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means, God with us). (24) When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, (25) but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.
Luke 2:1-20
In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. (2) This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. (3) And all went to be registered, each to his own town. (4) And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, (5) to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. (6) And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. (7) And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. (8) And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. (9) And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. (10) And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. (11) For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. (12) And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." (13) And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, (14) "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!" (15) When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us." (16) And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. (17) And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. (18) And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. (19) But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. (20) And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
Matthew 2:1-15
Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, (2) saying, "Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him." (3) When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; (4) and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. (5) They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: (6) "'And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.'" (7) Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. (8) And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him." (9) After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. (10) When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. (11) And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. (12) And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way. (13) Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him." (14) And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt (15) and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, "Out of Egypt I called my son."
May the love of God fill you with the joy, hope and peace of Christmas!
Merry Christmas!
Thanks for making WYMT-TV your source for news and information. We appreciate your trust.
God Bless America!
Neil Middleton
WYMT Mountain News
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subset: commoncrawl


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Cast Illness Forces La Cage Postponement, 13 Dec
Editorial Staff • West End • 16 Nov 2007
The first three previews have also been cancelled, with performances now commencing on 27 November. The limited season at the Menier's Southwark homebase continues until 8 March 2008.
Based on the 1973 French play by Jean Poiret and subsequent 1978 French-Italian screen version, the musical focuses on a gay couple - George, the manager of a St Tropez nightclub featuring drag entertainment, and Albin, his star attraction - and the adventures that ensue when George's son brings home his fiancée's ultra-conservative parents to meet them.
In addition to Quast and Hodge, the cast features Tara Hugo, Neil McDermott, Jason Pennycooke, Iain Mitchell and Una Stubbs. La Cage Aux Folles is directed by Terry Johnson and designed by David Farley, with costumes by Matthew Wright, lighting by David Howe, orchestration by Jason Carr and musical direction by Nigel Lilley.
La Cage Aux Folles has a book by Harvey Fierstein (Torch Song Trilogy) and music and lyrics by Jerry Herman, whose other classics include Hello Dolly!, Mame and Mack and Mabel. The score features songs including "I Am What I Am", "The Best of Times", "Song on the Sand", "Masculinity" and the title number.
On Broadway, La Cage Aux Folles clocked up over 1,500 performances in its premiere season – when it also won six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Book and Best Original Score - and had a brief revival in 2004. In London, it had a run at the London Palladium in 1986. The stage show also inspired the 1996 Hollywood film The Birdcage, which relocated the action to Miami where Nathan Lane and Robin Williams starred.
Currently at the 150-seat Menier Chocolate Factory, Samuel West's revival of Patrick Marber's debut play Dealer's Choice continues until 17 November before transferring to the West End's Trafalgar Studios next month (See News, 30 Oct 2007).
- by Terri Paddock
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Dec 20, 2012; San Diego, CA, USA; San Diego State Aztecs quarterback Adam Dingwell (6) is chased out of the pocket against the Brigham Young Cougars during the third quarter at Qualcomm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports
The Wolf Pack athletic department and football coach Brian Polian both received good financial news Tuesday.
The Mountain West announced its first wave of football games that will be nationally televised in 2013, and Nevada's game at San Diego State on Oct. 4 was among the seven games that will be broadcast by ESPN.
Under the conference's new revenue-sharing system, teams playing on ESPN will earn $300,000 for weekday contests and $500,000 for Saturday games as part of a "national exposure bonus system." ...


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Driving directions to and from La Molina in Spain.
Enter start location and click "Get Driving Directions" to get the best routes:
From: To:
NB: Driving Directions and Routes don't reflect road closures or local / seasonal effects of Spanish weather (e.g. driving in snow or mountain pass closures). Routes driving to La Molina are used at your own risk.
Created with Google maps API
Local Map 1 La Molina map
Local Map 2 La Molina map
The nearest airport to La Molina in Spain is Barcelona at a distance of approximately 158km. The Barcelona to resort transfer time is approximately 2 hours 40 minutes with good road, traffic and weather conditions.
Nearest Airports
Airport Distance
Approx. Tansfer Time
Barcelona to ski resort transfer
2 hours 40 minutes
to ski resort transfer
Nearest Train Station to Resort
Station to Resort Distance
Time from Station to Resort
La Molina station to resort
0 minute
Before driving to La Molina ski resort in Spain, check local traffic laws to ensure you're carrying mandatory driving equipment (a set of requirements for driving in Spain) and "winter driving equipment" (a different set of requirements for driving in the snow or the Spanish mountains in the winter) such as snow chains, hi-visibility vests, spare light bulbs and warning triangles. Each country has different laws - a big fine for being poorly equipped is an easy way to squander the saving you made on your superb value Sno holiday!
NB: Fitting snow chains for the first time can be tricky - learning to fit them at night, in a blizzard, on a busy and narrow La Molina mountain road can be deadly. Learn how to fit snow chains to your car before you drive to La Molina. If you are not confident driving on snow, don't risk it - book an airport transfer with one of the incredibly skilled and incredibly good value local drivers.
Map and Travel pages for all Spanish ski resorts
Baqueira Beret map directions
All package ski holidays booked with Sno are fully ATOL and TTA protected.
Book with the confidence that your package holiday is always protected against supplier failure.
Every Sno ski holiday packaged with flights is ATOL protected by the Civil Aviation Authority. All our suppliers
are ATOL bonded too, so your holiday money is safe. In addition to this, payments for your holiday are
held in trust, by NatWest bank and the Travel Trust, who insure every booking against supplier failure.
Visit the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for the latest official travel information and advice.
In addition to the comprehensive protection provided by SNO ltd, all of the ski holiday companies we work with are also protected by at least one of the following travel organisations:
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Roland S-4000Digital snake system tames latency-prone audio transmission. 12/01/2006 7:00 AM Eastern
Roland S-4000
Dec 1, 2006 12:00 PM, By John McJunkin
Digital snake system tames latency-prone audio transmission.
The whole audio world has gone digital. First, it was signal processing, then it was recording devices, and then consoles, and now it's the venerable snake. In the past, how many huge, heavy snakes have you reeled up and carted out, cussing and snarling about weight and unwieldiness? Moving an increasing number of signals over ever-shrinking cable has always been one of the promises digital has made to industry professionals, but that promise has never been truly fulfilled due to the final stumbling block — latency. I don't know about you, but I just can't have my signal arriving at the amplifiers 35 milliseconds after it originated.
With the S-4000 digital snake system, however, the folks at Roland have now reduced latency to substantially less than 1 millisecond, and I can certainly live with that.
The components comprising the system are the S-4000S 40-channel I/O modular rack, the S-4000H 32×8 FOH unit, the S-4000R remote controller, and the snake itself, which is a Cat-5e crossover cable of up to 100m. in length (a 10m. cable is included). Forty channels of 24-bit/96kHz audio (32 from stage, eight returns) can be handled by this tiny little wire. The transmission distance can be increased with Ethernet switching hubs, and Roland makes system control software available for both Windows and Mac platforms — I would love to see every manufacturer do this. The system also features two connection paths (primary and redundant). A redundant backup power supply (S-240P) is also available.
The S-4000S modular rack is the system's "stage box," with 32 inputs in banks of four (eight SI-AD4 modules, specifically). Each input has an XR-1 variable-gain preamp (remotely adjustable by computer or remote controller) that accepts signals ranging from -65dBu to +10dBu (for a maximum of +28dBu). Three status LEDs on each input indicate phantom power, signal presence, and clipping. Two SO-DA4 output modules provide eight outputs from FOH with a +4dBu typical output, +22dBu maximum.
The rack also has two Roland Ethernet Audio Communication (REAC) ports by which the unit is connected to the Cat-5e snake(s). The second port is for redundancy. A REAC Mode switch determines whether the unit operates in master, slave, or split mode. There is also MIDI I/O, a nine-pin D-sub (RS-232C) connector by which to connect the system's remote controller, LEDs indicating REAC and remote controller connection, and a Mute All Outputs button to enable safe connection of signals. Finally, a power-oriented section features LEDs indicating internal vs. external power or a problem with the system, and of course a power switch.
The S-4000H is normally situated at FOH, serving as the breakout box to feed your console. It features two REAC connectors (primary and redundant); these are the brilliant Neutrik EtherCon RJ-45 units, which help ensure a robust connection, but standard RJ-45 plugs can also be used. As with the S-4000S, a REAC Mode switch determines operation mode. And again, there is MIDI I/O, the nine-pin RS-232C connector for the remote controller, and LEDs indicating REAC and controller communication status. There is an all-important Mute All Outputs button on this end of the operation, as well, along with power status and alarm indicators and a power switch. Most important are the input and output connectors, which are DB-25 connectors intended for breakout cables. Roland has breakout cables available, but you can certainly build your own if you care to do so.
The S-4000R remote controller is intended to provide control over each of the system's input channels. Memory buttons scroll through the unit's 10 memory locations, and recall and store buttons execute their respective commands in regard to memory. I find this very handy. Say you have a nightclub scenario where a handful of four or five bands rotate through the club. You can store each band's nominal level settings in the system and recall them with the press of a button.
A knob and LED display adjust and indicate which channel is currently being adjusted. One minor complaint here — it appears that this controller was designed by a left-handed engineer. When adjusting level with one's right hand, the level display is obscured just at the moment when it needs to be visible. It's certainly not a deal killer, but perhaps future revisions will move the meter to a location that is always visible during adjustment. A lock button disables alterations to channel settings. The unit's "clip clear/enter" button clears clipping indicators in the display, and also serves as the unit's enter button to finalize a selection. A pad button engages a 20dB pad on the selected channel, and similarly, the Phantom +48V button applies phantom power to the selected channel. There is a gain knob and an eight-segment LED level meter that applies to the currently selected channel, as well.
There are signal status LEDs for each of the system's 40 channels, indicating signal presence and clipping. There are also power and system status indicators, showing REAC and controller communication.
I spent time test-driving the Roland digital snake at the Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences in Gilbert, Ariz. This system is configured to not only provide signal transfer from FOH to stage and back, but also a split to the monitor console. There are plans to implement a recording split.
The initial connection of the system is simple. The stage box is, for all practical intents and purposes, no different from any other stage box I've used. It's just a matter of plugging in your signals like you normally would. Signal levels are typically dialed up with the remote controller, although the computer software provides better metering. And once all levels are established, they can be stored. As I said before, that's a nice convention.
Although a second, redundant REAC cable is used at the Conservatory, the primary cable has never failed in many months of use. I was particularly impressed with the clever use of a standard Ethernet switcher, which costs approximately $20, to split the snake's signals off to the monitor console.
A second S-4000H unit breaks the signals out for monitoring purposes. The system has been 100 percent bulletproof, and frankly, sounds great. With 24-bit/96kHz resolution, one simply forgets that the signal is being converted A-D/D-A en route. It sounds good enough that the illusion of analog signal flow is sustained. Along those lines, I still find myself utterly astonished at the 0.375-millisecond latency when using a Roland REAC cable. From my perspective, anything less than a millisecond is acceptable.
Latency has been the bane of digital signal transfer since the dawn of time, but now Roland has solved the problem and applied the solution in a practical, eminently usable way with the Roland digital snake. If you have any reason whatsoever to avoid running incredibly thick, heavy cabling, this is the alternative you've been waiting for.
Company: Roland Systems Group www.rolandsystemsgroup.com
Product: S-4000
Pros: Low latency, high resolution, software for both platforms.
Cons: Remote controller's meter can be obscured by right-handed engineers.
Applications: For all audio professionals wanting the next generation in digital transmission.
Price: $7,995
Frequency Response: 20Hz to 20kHz at +4dBu
THD+N (Pad On/Gain +4dBu): 0.05% or less
Dynamic Range: 110dB
Cross Talk: -80dB
Nominal Input Level: -65 to -10dBu (Pad off), -45 to +10dBu (Pad on)
Maximum Input: +28dBu
Input Impedance: 20kΩ
Nominal Output Level: +4dBu, +22dBu maximum
Output Impedance: 150Ω
Recommended Load Impedance: 10kΩ or greater
Residual Noise Level (IHF-A, typical): -92dBu
Equivalent Input Noise (E.I.N.): -128dB
Network Latency: 0.375ms (using REAC cable only)
John McJunkin is the principal of Avalon Audio Services in Chandler, Ariz. He consults in the development of studios and installations and provides a large variety of recording and production services.
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Mark Fidrych had left the Tigers by 1981, but returned to Detroit for a Legends and Celebrities game at Comerica Park in 2005. (The Detroit News)
As another summer night's crowd of 50,000-plus jammed Tiger Stadium during that one-of-a-kind summer of 1976, the chant would begin as a muted, isolated chorus, rising in a split second to a jet-like roar as it swept the stands.
"Go, Bird, Go," the crowd would shout, rhythmically, as a curly-haired, 21-year-old pitcher of uncanny skill and color mowed down his latest American League team.
Mark "The Bird" Fidrych was a Detroit Tigers baseball icon so unique as to defy explanation to those who were not part of the Bird mania that gripped a town and a nation 33 years ago.
Fidrych died Monday at age 54 at his farm in Northborough, Mass., apparently accidentally as he worked on his dump truck.
As a 21-year-old rookie right-hander in 1976, Fidrych became a baseball and pop culture phenomenon.
He befuddled batters with a sinkerball at their knees as he racked up a 19-9 record, a league-leading 2.34 earned-run average, and a spot on the American League All-Star team, all ahead of being awarded American League Rookie of the Year honors.
Meanwhile, a kid from Massachusetts who had grown up pumping gas at his father's station entranced fans with a style as innocent as it was animated.
Unbound exuberance
Fidrych talked to the baseball as he stared in for the catcher's sign, exhorting the ball to "flow" before spilling into his wind-up and delivery, which tended to produce pitches that exasperated batters pounded into the ground -- or missed altogether.
He got down on his hands and knees to smooth the mound, making sure the dirt and undulations were to his satisfaction before he dared throw a pitch.
He was so guileless, so seemingly unaware of the world around him, that Fidrych never appeared to pick up on the laughter and delight he was generating from yet another sellout crowd that turned out, in Detroit and elsewhere. The fans simply could not believe what they were seeing in The Bird.
"That's what made it such an unbelievable year for everyone involved," said Jason Thompson, a rookie first baseman for the Tigers in 1976 who now operates Jason Thompson Baseball, a baseball and softball teaching clinic in Auburn Hills. "I tell people all the time: 'You don't realize how good this guy was.'
"They think he was this goofy guy running around on the mound. But he was just a great guy to play behind because he threw strikes, gave up a couple of hits, and you were out of there in two hours with a win."
Thompson remembers the crowds that began to shake Tiger Stadium almost immediately after Fidrych's first start, which came on May 15, 1976, when he pitched all nine innings of a 2-1 victory over the Cleveland Indians, holding the Indians to two hits.
He combined pitching prowess with an endearingly eccentric style that was purely irresistible. Later that summer, as the Tigers closed out the Yankees during a Monday Night Baseball telecast slurped up by a coast-to-coast audience, Fidrych put the Yankees down with the help of a ninth-inning ground ball to Tigers second baseman Tito Fuentes.
Fidrych had darted from the mound toward the ground ball that Fuentes ultimately and neatly handled. Typical of his spontaneity, The Bird was so ecstatic that Fuentes made the play he shook Fuentes' hand after the ball had been relayed to first.
"I love this kid!" yelped ABC-TV play-by-play telecaster Warner Wolf, letting loose with an on-the-air hosanna as reflexive as some of Fidrych's acts.
Dave Rozema, the right-hander who roomed with Fidrych for two years, talked amid sobs Monday about a teammate whose personality triumphed over the setbacks that eventually came Fidrych's way.
Over too soon
Fidrych's stunning career, in fact, ended nearly as abruptly as it began.
He had surgery on a knee he injured during spring training in 1977 and later developed arm problems that ended his career in 1980. From 1977-80 he had a 10-10 record and experienced one sad comeback attempt after another.
"It wasn't fair for him to hurt his arm like that," said Rozema, now a sales representative who lives in Grosse Pointe Park. "The way that guy worked, the way he competed, this guy should have had a long career the way he took care of himself and the way he loved the game."
Fidrych never appeared to see himself as the celebrity he became during a dreamy summer of '76. And he never took on the lifestyle of a person whose name became iconic.
His nickname was at the heart of Fidrych's lore. It was bestowed upon him during his minor league baseball days when his height (6-foot-3) and curly hair inspired a coach to say he looked like Big Bird from "Sesame Street."
The name stuck, and hung with him long after his playing days. A baseball institution, he continued to visit Detroit, as he did in February when he appeared at an Orchard Lake St. Mary's benefit.
Fidrych, as was his policy, never accepted an appearance fee. He attended countless charity events in Metro Detroit and elsewhere for the simple compensation of plane fare and hotel room. He spent his latter years in the area where he had grown up, in and around Northborough, Mass., where he had a small trucking business and some livestock.
Fidrych married Ann in 1986, and they had a daughter, Jessica, 21.
Monday, the truck that had long been associated with a plain and simple baseball man from New England killed him. Tragedy, it seemed, had been an integral part of Fidrych's life, unwilling as he was to accept such a notion or such sympathy.


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Jan 18, 2012 12:03 PM
Need something to light his fire this Valentine's Day? We suggest slipping into the In Bloom by Jonquil Tonight Lace Romper ($40) for a little romp in the sack.
If you've got a product or service that you'd like to promote on Outblush, click here to find out about our advertising opportunities.
Outblush is a blog for girls who love to shop. Our staff digs up the best clothes, home stuff, beauty items, and more. New items are posted every day — bookmark us, sign up for email updates, grab our RSS feed, and check out:


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Resolution: standard / high
Figure 7.
Effect of TMAH concentration on the morphology of macroporous silicon. SEM images of macroporous silicon after chemical etching in 1 wt.% TMAH for (a) 10, (b) 20, and (c) 30 min. The inset shows a high-magnification image of each specimen. (d) Tilted image taken at an angle of 45° to the surface. The conditions for Au-assisted chemical etching of (111) silicon were the same as those in Figure 5.
Asoh et al. Nanoscale Research Letters 2012 7:406 doi:10.1186/1556-276X-7-406


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Marcy and Mark Tanker of Bryn Mawr, and Susan and Brent Finkelstein of Oakhurst, N.J., announce the engagement of their children, Adam Heath Tanker and Shira Julie Finkelstein.
Adam is a graduate of George Washington University and the Widener University Law School. A former Bucks County deputy district attorney, he is currently an associate at Miller, Turetsky, Rule & McLennan in Collegeville, Pa.
Shira is a graduate of Tulane University and the physician assistant program at Marywood University. She is currently completing a residency in emergency medicine at the Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia.
Adam is the grandson of Paul Tanker and Leona Tanker, and Charlotte Budman and the late Solomon Budman. Shira is the granddaughter of Irene and Jerry Finkelstein, and Shirley Maleh and the late Sam Maleh.
The couple, who met in Israel on a Birthright trip, is planning a fall 2013 wedding.


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Il faut toujours avoir des projections pessimiste mais avoir une motivation et un morale optimiste. Non ?
Monthly Archives: September 2010
Posted by loopion on September 26, 2010 No comments
Mulve.com – Mp3 Music Search and Music Downloads
Posted by loopion on September 23, 2010 No comments
Link: Mulve.com – Mp3 Music Search and Music Downloads
Ok, now we are talking! Piracy will continue and drain a lot of new users everyday. How do you want to stop that?
Mulve sounds to get 90's and early 00's back on the stage with Napster like software, where are we going?
Answer: in a KISS direction. Keep It Stupid Simple!


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Jermaine Dupri - Celebration Feat. Jagged Edge, Da Brat, Dondria, Fresco Kane & Bow WowTue, Jan 15, 2013 Music, R&B MusicComments
"Not only is it an honor to be able to stand here 20 years after our very first release in 1993...but it's truly an achievement that we can bring everyone back together to celebrate over two decades of music excellence," said Dupri in a press release.
So So Def launched the careers of 3LW, Bow Wow, Da Brat, Anthony Hamilton, J-Kwon, The Ghost Town Djs, and more; the company has left an imprint on urban music with its string of hits.
A twenty song compilation with the 'Best of So So Def' will arrive in June 2013.


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Currently the hottest fad in town, Wall Street Games Inc. must choose among three long-term growth strategies
Last October, bull-marketers were taught an expensive lesson in complacency. But at least one investor closed out that infamous month with an impressive gain. Taking long positions in Blockbuster Entertainment, MCI Communications, and Microsoft, then hedging with a short position in IBM, a gutsy 21-year-old improved his personal stake by nearly 20% in one month. Not bad for a beginner -- except that the certificates involved had no more negotiable standing than houses on Boardwalk.
His -- and millions more -- ersatz shares are held in computerized safekeeping at the offices of Wall Street Games Inc. (WSG), a newly founded corporation in Wellesley, Mass. The company's own stake is expected to produce about $460,000 in sales for fiscal '88, its first full year; for '89, a 360% leap to more than $2 million is projected. And no play dough this: those numbers represent genuine coin of the realm.
Via the 12-person trading room of WSG, would-be investors get a vivid feel for the techniques of investing in stocks by actually going through the steps. Every month, WSG's computers disgorge a ranking of the winners and losers among the 3,000 or so players of its initial product, a game called The Blue Chip Edition. It's not a game in the joy-sticking sense of the word, though. That shibboleth comes from its creator's belief that Wall Street itself is "the greatest game in town'; therefore his should be second greatest, since, as art does life, WSG imitates the authentic version.
And therein lies its essentially solemn mission: to educate the masses -- or, perhaps more often, the classes. Under WSG's aegis, novices and students learn to play the market like the big boys, only they don't lose like the big boys. Of course, they don't win like the big boys, either, but perhaps celebrity -- a mention in the newsletter WSG mails to players -- is its own reward.
As fanciful as the concept is in practice, it was far more so in the spring of '87, when the simulated brokerage operation existed only in the agile mind of Timothy A. DeMello, then a real six-figures-a-year stockbroker in Boston. That March, 27-year-old DeMello quit an L. F. Rothschild vice-presidency to work out the details of the intricate product he envisioned. Between then and September, when WSG's first product was declared ready, DeMello designed the aspects of interactive play, enlisted a software expert to execute them, hired a suite in a mainline suburb of Boston, set up a toll-free phone line and an electronic call distributor, leased a battery of computers, hired a battery of workers to run them, and raised enough money through a private offering to pay for it all.
Why spurn real life for make-believe? "I was tired of those news items that said Mrs. Jones lost her fortune because she didn't know what she was doing and some broker supposedly misled her," WSG's founder explains. "How come she didn't know? It was her money." Concern for widows and orphans aside, DeMello, an '81 graduate of Babson College with a B.S. in finance, founded Wall Street Games mostly because he was inspired by business heroes such as Ray Kroc and Fred Smith who had been inducted into his alma mater's Distinguished Academy of Entrepreneurs. "I wanted to get involved like they did, but when I got out of school I didn't have enough money to start my own company. So I went into the brokerage business," DeMello relates. "After six years I decided it was time -- but what to do? I noticed that most entrepreneurs didn't start things they knew nothing about. Well, I knew financial markets.'
As it happened, a number of colleges -- Ohio State, Texas Christian, and Babson among them -- were considering courses in which business students handle a portion of the college's endowment as a learning experience. But since only a few students at a time could do the hands-on managing, that left millions more still learning the hands-off textbook way. A rightable imbalance, DeMello was alert to note. "On the one hand, here were these investors who needed to be educated, and on the other, students who needed a practical education. I looked around the office and wondered what would happen if I were to duplicate this stuff. Let everyone get burned or make fortunes, receive statements, initiate phone calls, talk to brokers, order stocks -- only don't use actual money. If I could deliver a stock-trading product at the right price and make it realistic, the market was sure to buy it.'
The idea found embodiment as a slender box the size of a typical computer-game package. For a hefty $99 retail, you don't even get a pair of dice, only an 800 telephone number, a stock-symbol guide, and $100,000 in bogus buying power. Yet at first DeMello toyed with an even heftier price, hoping potential users would recognize value in the lessons that lay behind it. However, he conceded, to launch the concept "I had to have a product that was priced under $100, because no matter how great it was, it wasn't going to find a mass market at anything higher.'
A player dials in during the market day, asks for quotes and last-sale prices, buys or sells, and rings off. WSG's computers are networked both to a database for posting and retrieving customer information and to a roof satellite antenna that pulls in up-to-the-minute stock-market prices from the NYSE, the Amex, and NASDAQ. The system automatically logs activity and generates statements, which the postman brings every month in bright green envelopes that won't get lost in the detritus of workaday mail.
But why not simply buy a newspaper, note your stock picks, and see how they come out later -- a savings of some $98.50? "People have been trying that for years," DeMello scoffs at such cut-rate competition, "but they lose concentration. If you've just been given $100,000, you have to keep doing something about it. You need a regimen. You need to talk through the procedures. If you write it down from the paper, are you going to bother to figure out your daily interest on a margin loan? You have to be hit with a statement every month. We give you the discipline.'
At the end of the summer, when The Blue Chip Edition was ready to ship, DeMello coached his two-person (now five) senior staff, "Let's not spend money on advertising until we find out who our customer is. For all we know, it could be 10-year-old kids who end up playing this thing." (A few do, it turns out.) With no promotional to-do, WSG threw open its doors on September 1 and waited to see who walked in. "The strategy was, let's hope it generates some publicity. All we did is declare it available.'
As luck had it, just before Black Monday, WSG had been mentioned in Business Week of September 28, and New York magazine had run a captioned photo in its October 19 edition. Then came the dive, and in the gloom the financial press knew where to turn for a droll sidelight. On October 22, The Wall Street Journal's front-page "Business Bulletin" column led with an item on the "swamped" condition of the Wall Street Games phones. Associated Press wired a feature, DeMello shuttled off to "The Today Show," and various cute pieces about how WSG's "customers" lost "millions" popped up in scores more places.
WSG's switchboard started smoking. "Brookstone called and asked, 'Can you make money selling us games at $50 each?' " DeMello remembers, understanding that that was the best retailers could pay and still get their 100% markup. "I don't know," he told them, "but I think we can." Waldenbooks ordered it; American Airlines, TWA, and Haverhills put it in their catalogs; Marriott's Host International vended it from airport video kiosks. "Don't miss what could be the newest, funkiest, hottest, most challenging toy product for 1988!" advised the Toy Manufacturers of America, apparently misperceiving Blue Chip as Green Slime. Coming into 1988, WSG was becoming entrenched in retail, the market DeMello least expected -- or, for that matter, wanted. "But we were getting good orders," says DeMello, "so we just let it happen. We could afford to do it, because we'd have the use of the money: we were shipping boxes that cost us $4, and taking in $50." It was found money.
But not riskless money. Having only a few weeks' experience in the habits of end users, DeMello could only hope that the direct costs and variable expenses per game would be in line with the price received. When it came time to service the game, were players' phone calls going to average a minute each, or 10 minutes? What if more phoned in from California, the most expensive WATS zone, than from New York? What were the trading patterns -- would WSG have to open earlier, stay later, hire more phone answerers, install more lines?
It's essential to structure play so it requires only a 30- to 45-second phone call, DeMello calculates. Indeed, subsequent months have proved that The Blue Chip Edition's biggest variable expense is the toll-free line, to which is assigned $12 per game per year. Because charges tick irrepressibly upward at 6-second intervals, the software, phone-switching routines, and playing rules are designed to keep them at a minimum. "If a client asks what stock he should buy," DeMello trains his brokers, "you reply, 'If we gave advice, it wouldn't be a game.' '
As for labor costs, ordinarily significant in a service-oriented operation, WSG is sitting pretty, with many of its unregistered reps coming from Wellesley College, right around the corner. Others come from nearby campuses. Each is paid on a part-time basis at $5 an hour with no benefits -- a worse deal than dishwashers get in this high-employment corner of the country. Because of the technology behind his $99 ceiling, "I had to have cheap labor," DeMello insists. "Yet at the same time I need someone capable of responding to complicated questions. That's why I decided to locate where the colleges are. Money isn't a high priority with students; more important is a learning experience and something they can put on their résumés.'
An added benefit of a stock-market facsimile is that workers need be employed for only six and a half hours a day -- the interval the stock market is open. Not only that, but DeMello has received requests from university co-op programs for WSG to take on apprentices at no pay at all. The prospect of absolutely cheap labor is alluring, but he admits he'd feel guilty. Still, that's nothing a good psychiatrist or unexpected margin squeeze couldn't overcome.
The low cost of WSG's labor is a function of the high cost of its decor. WSG could be run out of a warehouse across the tracks and customers wouldn't know the difference, but students wouldn't go to work there. This way, they're impressed. "They feel like they're at a trading desk," says DeMello.
To lend the premises the atmosphere of a bona fide operation, WSG doles out $2,976 a year for an overhead ticker, although the instrument has as little bearing on procedures as a ficus plant. For the 3,300-square-foot premises, Wall Street Games pays close to $20 per foot. That's not unusual for Wellesley Square -- the difference being that at WSG's decorated digs, no shoppers come in to browse.
"Now, we have to step out of internal development and get into marketing," DeMello realizes. Although so far 80% of game sales have been through retail, The Blue Chip Edition's shelf-life actuarial tables aren't convincing. When WSG peddled product at New York City's International Toy Fair in February, its price scared buyers away. Retail stores that carry it tend to place it in a games section beside popular items that sell for much less, and it doesn't do well. "In the long run," DeMello predicts, "the campus and training will constitute the bulk of our business.'
DeMello has opted for the former. "Some people insist training is the biggest market, but college business is something we always want to be involved in, if only because of the nature of the beast: new-customer turnover is 25% a year, and word-of-mouth advertising is very cheap on campuses. There are 7,000 colleges and some 12 million students, 30% of whom take business courses. If we produce a product for them at $40 per semester, even if there are only 30 students in a course, the numbers are huge." Catching on in a syllabus is a blessing that extends product life -- forever. WSG adapts playing time to fit a semester's requirements, and gets professors (rather than bookstores, where "the markups would hurt us') to enlist the paying customers. The campaign already has been so successful that a trickle of students even ordered themselves fresh playing time after their classroom allotment expired.
After them, however, the deluge. This fall, as many as 26,000 more students are expected to pay $49.95 each to enter WSG's collegiate investing contest. Armed with the usual $100,000 worth of gossamer, entrants will trade the market for four months. If they're particularly good, they won't just find their names on some obscure list: the top 10 will divvy up $62,000 in WSG-provided ante.
In his marketing plan, such as it was, DeMello had intended to establish this campus contest in '88, then go after cash-paying sponsors the next year (see '89 financial projections, page 5). But sponsors couldn't wait that long. Before summer even began, AT&T had grabbed the title (the event is now officially called The First Annual AT&T Collegiate Investment Challenge) for $200,000 in cash and advertising; Dow Jones had arranged for a scholarship tie-in; and Reebok International had signed up to provide merchandise awards. "This is big for us, credibility-wise," DeMello grants. "AT&T, Dow Jones, and Reebok are definitely three top companies."
By mid-June, WSG had enlisted participants from some 500 campuses in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and England, at which point DeMello decided he'd better limit enrollment before it overwhelmed his ability to service it. And that's only one promotion. Next spring comes a three-month, cash-prize contest, with a $150 entry fee, marketed and promoted with Players International Inc. The response so far has been spectacular, reports DeMello, looking toward yet another sizable piece of change -- and an apparently lawful one in at least 44 states, WSG's attorneys have advised.
Because of such easily placed sales and the possibility of more (WSG has been considering concentrating on such would-be clients as the American Association of Individual Investors, the American Association of Retired Persons, and even Wall Street brokers), DeMello so far has been content to exist without a sales force. "That will kick in in year three, when we have other products," he plans. Until then, DeMello himself insists on doing the selling. "If I had a full sales force going after every market we could possibly get into, and they all hit, I couldn't service all the business," he explains. "I'd rather find out where we're headed and directly identify every market, then put together a sales force and tell them this is what you can sell. We have to make sure we have the core of it right before we can expand." On the other hand, DeMello is willing to second-guess himself: "Maybe we should have the sales force first. If I could throw in $50,000 to increase sales 20%, I definitely should.'
While promotions seem to be catching on by themselves, equally fertile but tougher ground awaits in the training market. So does a higher pricing structure, inasmuch as a training course isn't particularly price-sensitive. "Employers know that just to put an employee on a plane is a $500 expense without adding in anything else," assesses DeMello. "We can train them through self-study." Several corporations already have solicited WSG, among them multiservice financial institutions that must familiarize customer-service staffs with the stock market. In Boston, National Financial, a Fidelity Investments company that processes brokerage orders for correspondent banks on the side, has been asked by some of the banks to set up dummy accounts as teaching vehicles. But fearful that the fakes might get mixed up with the real thing, National Financial refused and is now reviewing WSG's proposal to set up a riskless program through its trading desks.
And if pure training works out, won't training cum promotion do even better? In the fall, as part of the Fidelity deal, WSG is proposing to stage such an amalgam for 500 employees of the brokerage arm of New York City's Irving Bank Corp. While the employees sop up training through game play, they also vie for a substantial cash prize. Corporations with employee stock ownership plans also are WSG's fair game. Wide-scale employee education helps the employer in the end, the pitch goes, because ESOPs are a cheap source of capital.
DeMello ought to be familiar with cheap sources of capital, having seeded his enterprise with $20,000 of his own, then offered outside investors 20% of the company for $500,000 in May 1987. Simple arithmetic appraises DeMello's share of Wall Street Games at close to $2 million even back then. And there were no products, no prototype, and no assets; what's more, start-up charges of about $65,000 (of which software design alone ate up $35,000) had yet to hit the books. There was, however, a reassuring written pledge from key personnel (the chief executive officer, treasurer, and sales manager -- each in the person of one Tim DeMello) to work full-time for two years at $60,000 a year plus a bonus of not more than 10% of EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes). Since the second year's EBIT was estimated to be $375,000, that would give key personnel another $37,500 and put DeMello back close to six figures.
"My plan was not to go for debt financing," he explains. "I knew there had to be a certain amount of equity, because if I went in and tried to do the whole thing on debt, no bank was going to give me enough. So I figured, let's get the equity taken care of first to show it's in line, and then the bank will respond positively." (Subsequently, the bank did, extending $250,000 in a line of credit, of which WSG has used $100,000 -- its only debt.) Over the next three months, DeMello doggedly hawked stock, accumulating commitments from fellow brokers and old clients. He stopped when he got to $325,000, concluding that it was enough to proceed with.
Many variable costs haven't settled in yet, but DeMello feels he has understated them in the '89 projections, which are based on selling 35,000 units. Labor is well controlled, because, as DeMello notes, "if we don't sell product, we don't use the students." And if they do sell product, there's no problem, either: in June alone, 26 job applicants were turned away. Shipping will go up as product is freighted to more than 500 campuses. Sales commissions also will rise noticeably: WSG pays campus reps $5 to $10 per game sold for the college competition. As demand for service increased, DeMello hired a full-time director of computer operations. To pay for expanding operations, this time around DeMello intends to do some debt financing. The reason is sound enough: "If I have $300,000 committed from sources like AT&T, it would be crazy to go out and dilute the stock by selling more equity.'
In any event, DeMello has been busy upgrading the verisimilitude of the original version (an uptick restriction for short-selling has been added, for example, and stop and limit orders are upcoming), and is considering exotic variations such as options, futures, and commodities. Hence the leap in '89's R&D budget (see financials, below). Again, big-name partners such as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange have expressed interest in joining in. Indeed, given more computing power and employee expertise, a player's options and futures portfolios might be linked to his equities portfolio, demanding intricate total-income solutions. Add to that the prospect of a worldwide market for a WSG game that is playable round-the-clock, dealing in securities of Japan and England as well as the United States, and growth possibilities seem endless.
But they're not. For one thing, 24-hour world trading would require 24-hour local service. Will low-paid employees be responsive -- or even show up -- at 2:30 p.m. Tokyo time? Won't players run up the WATS line trying to determine the difference between Matsushita and Mitsubishi? Even professional brokers are intimidated by trading soybeans and pork bellies, and as players surely would make more demands on WSG's services. Right now, DeMello calculates, the company can accommodate 48 terminals with 48 students each answering 250 phone calls a day. That's 12,000 "plays" all told, wedged in with utmost precision.
By now, dialing-for-fake-dollars habits have become predictable. A typical participant is very active his first month, moderately active the second and third, then eases off markedly. Right now, less than 10% of The Blue Chip Edition's 3,000 players call in each day, so total usage is barely two hours. Thus 98% of capacity is unused. Indeed, some periods are so dull that DeMello often sends the troops home early.
However, that pace should quicken once the cash award promotions hit WSG's trading floor. Each contest likely will strain services for three or four months running, which leaves DeMello a potential of only three sponsored promotions per year. Ironically, one presently in the works is a simulated-investment competition among real stockbrokers, bringing his concept full circle -- and possibly closing it.
The company: Wall Street Games Inc., Wellesley, Mass.
Concept: A simulated stock market, enabling college students, financial-services trainees, and individual investors to play the securities game with mythical money
Projections: Profitable from start. Second-year sales of $2.1 million with pretax profit of almost $500,000
Hurdles: Picking the right market from among retail, academic, or training; creating demand beyond fad appeal; servicing uncertain volume
Wall Street Games Inc. projected operating statement
Fiscal Year Ending 9/30/88 9/30/89
Game sales $385,000 $1,875,000
Sponsor fees 75,000 250,000
Total sales 460,000 2,125,000
Cost of Sales
Game packages 40,000 140,000
Direct labor (service) 12,000 156,000
Toll-free phones 11,000 150,000
Monthly mailings 19,000 115,500
Postage and shipping 8,250 52,000
Sales commissions 12,500 125,000
Total cost of sales 102,750 738,500
Gross Profit 357,250 1,386,500
Operating Expenses
Payroll and related 162,000 197,000
Rent 54,336 61,128
Insurance 6,024 7,500
Equipment and furniture leases 39,840 72,000
Equipment maintenance 1,200 7,500
Quotation service 10,140 30,000
Stock-exchange fees 6,480 22,000
Advertising and promotions 20,000 250,000
Promotional awards 0 150,000
Telephone 4,600 8,800
Legal services 3,200 20,000
Professional services 8,500 18,500
Travel and entertainment 2,100 18,000
Research and development 5,000 25,000
Office supplies 1,500 3,500
Interest expense 3,100 22,000
Miscellaneous 2,500 6,000
Total expenses 330,520 918,928
Net Income Before Taxes 26,730 467,572
Timothy A. DeMello founded Wall Street Games Inc. exactly six years after he was graduated from college with a B.S. in finance. In the interval he, along with thousands more young, upward-moving professionals, had managed to climb several rungs of the financial community's ladder. DeMello successively became a vice-president of Kidder, Peabody & Co., and of L. F. Rothschild, handling individual and institutional accounts -- just the ticket to a dull, seven-figures-a-year existence. Handily, by the time repercussions from the October crash thinned the ranks of other investment-banker aspirants, the personable and persuasive DeMello, then 28, had already departed Wall Street to develop and market his own less hazardous version of it. By then, he had learned his own lessons well. Most of the capital for the venture came from former clients and fellow brokers; DeMello threw in a mere $20,000, signed a debt instrument to secure another $50,000, and kept 86% of equity in the company for himself.
Lecturer, Babson College, Wellesley, Mass. Uses WSG's The Blue Chip Edition in course on securities analysis
I've used The Blue Chip Edition for two semesters, and the first semester went very smoothly -- students liked it a lot. In the second semester the students liked the game itself, but there were transaction errors. Records showed purchases of the wrong stock, or stock that students claimed had been bought didn't show up, or the wrong number of shares were recorded. I think as the volume has gone up, there's been some decline in the service.
If that's so, DeMello's got a real problem, especially in the education market. A large number of errors kills the aspect of realism and creates ill will on the part of professors. If I assign the game, I'm essentially vouching for its quality. If there are lots of errors, I can't go on assigning it.
But it is the right market, especially if WSG can broaden the product. I use it only in my introductory courses now. For advanced courses the game needs options and futures, and more than the allotted $100,000 in funds -- make it $10 million, say -- so a student could act as a portfolio manager rather than a private investor. But the price is right. Most college textbooks are $30 to $60, and if a student is paying $1,000 tuition for a course, another $45 for WSG doesn't seem too far out of line.
The education market offers a customer base that's continually renewing at a low market cost. There are several thousand professors of finance in the country, and DeMello will have to figure out how to get to them. But the nice thing is that once you've got professors on, you don't have to go back and resell them every quarter. I teach four of these sections a year, and each course has about 40 people -- that means I deliver 160 customers per year. That's where WSG can come up with a sustainable customer base -- not from onetime promotions in catalogs.
Stockbroker; senior vice-president at Shearson Lehman/Hutton
DeMello did a wonderful job. It's well thought out, packaged very well, and easy to understand. As a learning tool, it's terrific. But I just don't see the demand. There is zero need for it among my customers. Most of them are passive. They want me to do it. Sure, if I lost money for them they'd ask why, but a game isn't going to teach them. The only thing that will do that is life.
The main problem with anything that deals with money in a hypothetical way, whether it's betting on horses or playing the stock market, is that unless you're emotionally involved, it's not valuable. When it's play money, you're not emotionally influenced. To learn anything, you have to have put real dough on the line. Students can say they were up 400% in a college course on the stock market, but the result would be different if they had their own money at risk.
Another problem for WSG is timing: nobody cares about the underlying product right now. Wall Street is in a full-fledged depression. The average investor, even one with plenty of money, is buying CDs or staying in the money market. The atmosphere is one of fear, anxiety, or at least indifference. I think we may be in this climate for quite some time. If at first the game was bought as a fad, that thrust is now completely taken away. DeMello might as well paint the windows of his brokerage office black, because right now nobody cares.
The college market is viable. But how much is marketing going to cost? I think his projections are way off, given the climate. Even college stock-market courses tend to decline in periods when nobody cares. So he's in for some tough sledding. There already have been layoffs on Wall Street, and you haven't seen the half of it. The average stockbroker isn't even making $200 a week. It's not a glamorous job anymore.
This is a business you can't force. At most, you can cut prices, advertise, reposition. But you can't make people buy stocks -- for real or for pretend -- when there's no appetite for it. I would hate to start a business with something that may be out of favor for a long time.
DeMello is obviously a true entrepreneur. He's going to make it big in one direction or another. But this isn't the one.
President, The Games Gang Ltd., marketers of Pictionary; turned down DeMello's request to market The Blue Chip Edition
This is a tough call. I think WSG's product is well done, but I can't tell whether it's going to be successful or not. When Tim showed us the product, we were fairly excited at first to take it into our line and sell it to stores. Then we estimated the number of phone calls each player would generate and realized we could get into a real jam if we sold 200,000 or 300,000 units over the next two years. Tim says that not everyone calls, that the phone calls dry up after the first month. Well, if that's the case, then it's not going to be successful. I told him I still think it's a great product, but maybe he should rethink it.
To me, he's selling $100 worth of smoke -- the phone calls. And if Tim's right about usage patterns, the player is going to figure out he's paying a lot of money for phone calls he's not using. That's what I thought was wrong. I would bring out the game for much less and have people pay an extra charge for the toll-free calls, or pay for the calls themselves.
The game needed testing. What has to be determined is whether the public will respond to the product and have fun playing it. Is it a game or an educational tool? I perceived it as a game, because the stock market is a game. If the public sees it that way and is willing to spend the $100 or so, it will be successful. If, on the other hand, it's educational, then the educational emphasis should be reflected in its packaging and accompanying materials -- it should teach you about the stock market. Then say, "By the way, if you want to play with fake money, for another $5 or $10 you can join up and get monthly mailings and an account, and you can phone in and play the market like it really is the market." Tim's had it in Brookstone, and my guess is it didn't sell. I don't think it can work at retail.


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Hookup rumor du jour: Russell Crowe dating Dita Von Teese?
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By Kat Giantis
Has Russell Crowe been hiding a gentlemanly side? The ornery Oscar winner leaped to defend the honor of Dita Von Teese amid rumblings that they recently shared an early morning rubdown-a-deux at a luxury hotel.
It all began when the New York Post claimed Crowe, who reportedly parted ways with wife Danielle Spencer in October after nine years and two sons together, was spied with the burlesque queen last month at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York. They supposedly indulged in a "romantic couple's massage" at 6:30 a.m.
The sighting followed a few flirtatious tweets from Russell, 48, who apparently reposted some of Dita's more titillating messages referencing her Hermes riding crop and her garter belts.
But Crowe, who earlier denied reports of a hotel rendezvous with Billy Joel's foodie ex-wife Katie Lee (he called the whispers "false and cruel"), once again insists nothing untoward is going on.
Dita "is brave, smart, sweet and elegant," he tweeted. "She is a friend of mine. Who wouldn't want friends like that? Friends, not lovers."
So, to recap: The newly single famous actor is just pals with the beautiful pin-up known for rolling around mostly naked in a supersized martini glass. Got it.
For her part, Von Teese, 40, doesn't appear to have a type, although her last two romances were with significantly younger men. The former missus of Marilyn Manson split with easy-on-the-eyes French aristocrat Louis-Marie de Castelbajac in early 2012. She was last linked to British pop singer Theo Hutchcraft.
Crowe, meanwhile, skipped Sunday's Golden Globes to spend time in Australia with his sons, Charles, 9, and Tennyson, 6.
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Canada's Green Budget 2009
GATINEAU, QC -- January 30, 2009 -- Canada's government takes seriously its responsibility to protect and promote the rich natural resources that define our environment and give our nation much of its form and character.
Our most recent Budget reiterates our commitment with significant investments that allow for the continued protection and conservation of our environmental heritage, and also for further research into how we can best conserve the natural resources and landscapes that will be left behind for future generations.
Our investments include:
- $1 billion over five years for clean energy research development and demonstration projects, including capture and storage;
- A new $1 billion Green Infrastructure Fund to support projects like public transit, sustainable energy and waste management;
- $1.3 billion over two years to support renovations and energy retrofits that will make Canada's social housing stock more energy efficient, to be split on a 50/50 cost-shared basis with the provinces;
- $300 million over two years to go to the ecoENERGY Retrofit program to support an additional 200,000 energy-saving home retrofits;
- $250 million over two years to maintain federal laboratories;
- $85 million over two years for key Arctic research stations, and $2 million over two years for a feasibility study for a world-class Arctic research station;
- $80.5 million over the next two years to manage and assess federal contaminated sites, which will facilitate remediation work totaling an estimated $165 million over the next two years and contribute to an improved environment as well as employment opportunities;
- $75 million for national parks; and
- $10 million in 2009-2010 to improve the government's annual reporting on key environmental indicators such as clean air, clean water and greenhouse gas emissions.
Combined, these investments demonstrate our government's commitment to the environment and will enhance our ability to confront the great environmental challenges of our time.
For more information on Budget 2009, visit http://www.budget.gc.ca/2009/home-accueil-eng.asp
The Hon. Jim Prentice
Minister of the Environment
- Date modified:


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Sterilizers Work Quickly and Efficiently
Sterilizers provide expedient, cost-effective decontamination.
A dry-heat sterilizer is designed for speed. The SD dry-heat sterilizer features significantly faster heat-up and cooldown rates than conventional dry-heat sterilizers. The heat-up cycle takes the oven from 20° to 260°C in 15 minutes, compared with between 45 minutes and 2 hours for conventional units. The cooldown cycle provides a similar reduction in processing time. The oven maintains Class 1000 conditions throughout the processing cycle. An optional touch screen with PLC is available. Comprehensive IQ and OQ validation support reduces the time and effort required for validation and start-up. Despatch Industries, Minneapolis, MN.
A sterilization management and analytical laboratory offers a range of sterilization services. Sterilization and testing techniques include EtO, gamma, electron beam, and x-ray. Experts in the fields of sterilization, regulatory affairs, and medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturing offer their knowledge and experience to provide an economical, expedient cycle for products. IBA Medical Sterilization and Analytical Laboratories Div., Chicago, IL.
Test and validation sterilizers were developed in response to regulations for sterilization validation, which require manufacturers to interrupt production to develop and validate sterilization methods. The ILS20 BIER steam sterilizers comply with the ISO standards for indicator validation. H & W Technology LLC, Rochester, NY.
Contamination prevention and control products and services are designed for the pharmaceutical and medical device markets. The VHP 1000–series biodecontamination system is a self-contained hydrogen peroxide vapor generator designed for the decontamination of clean, hard, dry surfaces. Steris Corp., Scientific Div., Mentor, OH.


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Sulochana and Archana buying vegetable in Pavitra Rishta
Sulochana and Archana buying vegetable in Pavitra Rishta
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Celebrity : Savita Prabhune , Ankita Lokhande
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ankita luking gorgeous here...
Love u both.Anki looks so nice.
i just love her simplicity...
she looks fab...:*
love this serial and acting of the leads


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Sat, 10 Oct, 2015
Camp Lejeune Fall II classes will start on Tuesday, October 13, 2015.
Students registered in a Blended course for the term should log into their courses using Blackboard. Many of the Blended courses will meet on Wednesday, October 14, as the first night of class. Instructors will have posted announcements or sent emails. Check your Campbell emails!
Welcome to Fall II. We look forward to an exciting term.
Wed, 22 Apr, 2015
Wed, 15 Apr, 2015
Wed, 15 Apr, 2015
Here are some time management tips to help make your school schedule less overwhelming.


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Why is law enforcement losing respect, public support & recruits?
|Movies like American Gangster hold the answer.
By Senior PoliceOne Correspondent Chuck Remsberg
I should be numbed to Hollywood's perversion of policing by now, but American Gangster has my teeth grinding.
The film, starring Denzel Washington in the title role and Russell Crowe as his law enforcement nemesis, alleges to be "based on a true story." In this context, "based" has got to be one of the most elastic words in the English language.
Maybe things are different on the East Coast, where Denzel is a Harlem drug lord who's even "above the Mafia." But where I'm from, a chief narcotics detective in a major takedown does not show up as the prosecutor when the case comes to court.
Unfortunately, American Gangster is well-acted, suspensefully scripted, and artfully photographed. Unfortunate, because that gritty craftsmanship buttresses its illusion of authenticity.
Crowe, who's barely a few ashes shy of being a burned-out case, gets permanently stigmatized in the police world at the beginning of the movie because he turns in nearly $1,000,000 in untraceable cash seized during a drug bust instead of stuffing his pockets with it. His partner begs him not to do something that rash, because if he insists on being honest, all the other cops will hate the two of them.
Amazingly, that may be the least cynical moment in the film.
Crowe's partner turns out to be a closet junkie. He murders a drug dealer in the projects while trying to rip him off, then phones Crowe to rescue him when a lynch mob blocks his escape route.
Crowe radios for backup as he drives toward the scene, but the dispatcher refuses to send cars. Payback, see, for Crowe having refused to steal the dirty money, thus betraying the blue brotherhood by doing the right thing. Even the dispatchers are in on it.
Every law officer with even modest face time on camera is mired in corruption. One particularly egregious bunch, in addition to openly extorting dope and money, invades Denzel's mansion, terrorizes his beauty queen wife and doddering mama, and slaughters the family dog before plundering a buried cache of cash.
Of course, there are no swans in a sewer, so even Crowe, while haplessly honest, is profoundly flawed.
Just after trying to convince his estranged wife that he's a worthy human being, he demolishes a kitchen in a caroming sex scene with his female divorce attorney, while she screams, "Fuck me like a cop!"
Soon after, he casually abandons a half-hearted attempt at getting shared custody of his young son. His ex-wife should take the boy off to live a continent away in Las Vegas, he decides, because his obsessive war on Denzel leaves no time or appetite for committed fatherhood.
In the end, even our "hero" sells out. While pursuing Denzel, Crowe, seemingly speaking from the heart, excoriates him (accurately) as a ruthless destroyer of lives, a sociopathic cancer unfit to stain the streets. But once he's helped incarcerate this public menace, he becomes, apparently without a second thought, a defense lawyer. His first client: the reviled Denzel himself.
We all know of cops who would do that, who have done it. We know police corruption exists, and shame to those whose deeds lend credence to movies like this. But we also know American Gangster, despite its claim to "truthiness," is not representative of American police culture.
Recently, I wrote a column about a book titled The Calling, a realistic portrayal of the first five years of an ordinary police officer's professional life [Read the column]. When I interviewed the author, Dan Marcou, a retired lieutenant from the La Crosse (Wisc.) P.D., he made this observation:
"Most modern police stories on TV or in the movies show cops to be incredibly corrupt or tolerant of corruption. Moviemakers portray police as violent, uncaring alcoholics, who have no family but ex-wives and estranged children. Hollywood cops drink too much, all alone in a dingy apartment. All they have is an over-investment in law enforcement."
American Gangster hadn't been released yet when he said that, but he knew the territory.
We're all painfully familiar with the increasing difficulty recruiters have in finding quality men and women who want to pin on a badge these days. What kind of prospects will be impressed by this movie and want to apply? How many civilians after seeing this depiction will emerge reassured about their own police?
American Gangster grossed $46.3 million in more than 3,000 theaters its first weekend, the second biggest R-rated motion picture opening in history for a movie that's more than 2 1/2-hours long. They're talking sequel. Oscar buzz is in the air.
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|Hip dislocation: are hip precautions necessary in anterior approaches?
MedLine Citation:
|PMID: 21076896 Owner: NLM Status: MEDLINE
|BACKGROUND: In 2005, we reported removal of functional restriction after primary THA performed through the anterolateral approach did not increase the incidence of dislocation.
QUESTIONS/PURPOSES: To develop a current practice guideline, we evaluated the incidence of early dislocation after primary THA after implementation of a no-restriction protocol.
METHODS: Between January 2005 and December 2007, 2532 patients (2764 hips; 1541 women, 1223 men; mean age, 63.2 years [28-98 years]) underwent primary THA at our institution. Bilateral THA was performed in 232 patients (464 hips). The direct anterior or anterolateral approach was used in all patients. Femoral head size was 28, 32, or 36 mm. Patients were given no traditional functional restrictions postoperatively, such as use of elevated seats, abduction pillows, and restriction from driving. All patients received standard care at the judgment of the attending surgeon. One hundred forty-six patients missed followup appointments despite efforts to be contacted by telephone. The remaining 2386 of 2532 patients (94%) had a minimum followup of 6 months (mean, 14.2 months; range, 6-34 months).
RESULTS: Four known dislocations occurred in the followed cohort of 2386 patients with 2612 hips (0.15%) at a mean of 5 days (3-12 days) postoperatively, none related to high-impact trauma. One dislocation occurred in a patient with a history of developmental dysplasia of the hip, two dislocations occurred while at the toilet (one with a previous hip fracture treated with a modular system), and one dislocation was idiopathic.
CONCLUSIONS: We confirmed a low incidence of dislocation after primary THA in the absence of early postoperative restrictions. We conclude a no-restriction protocol does not increase the incidence of early dislocation after primary THA.
LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level II, therapeutic study. See the Guidelines for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
|Camilo Restrepo; S M Javad Mortazavi; Justin Brothers; Javad Parvizi; Richard H Rothman
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Publication Detail:
|Type: Journal Article
Journal Detail:
|Title: Clinical orthopaedics and related research Volume: 469 ISSN: 1528-1132 ISO Abbreviation: Clin. Orthop. Relat. Res. Publication Date: 2011 Feb
Date Detail:
|Created Date: 2011-01-11 Completed Date: 2011-02-24 Revised Date: 2013-07-03
Medline Journal Info:
|Nlm Unique ID: 0075674 Medline TA: Clin Orthop Relat Res Country: United States
Other Details:
|Languages: eng Pagination: 417-22 Citation Subset: AIM; IM
|The Rothman Institute of Orthopaedics, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, 925 Chestnut Street, 5th Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA.
Export Citation:
|APA/MLA Format Download EndNote Download BibTex
|MeSH Terms
Aged, 80 and over
Arthroplasty, Replacement, Hip / methods*
Hip Dislocation / surgery*
Hip Joint / physiology, surgery*
Middle Aged
Pennsylvania / epidemiology
Postoperative Care
Postoperative Complications / epidemiology, prevention & control*
Range of Motion, Articular
Recovery of Function
From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine
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Next Document: No strength or gait benefit of two-incision THA: a brief followup at 1 year.


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- Filed Under
Sometime in the distant past - before I had children, one of whom is about to become a teenager this weekend - I made a "New Discovery" in my kitchen.
A new wok in hand, sometime in the mid-1990s, I began trying recipes in "The Joy of Wokking" by Martin Yan. On page 94, I came upon Fried Five-Spice Chicken, labeled a "New Discovery." I deep fried a batch of five-spice chicken and knew the recipe was a good one for its fragrant spices and crispy chicken bites.
And then I forgot about it. One recent cold winter night, I pulled out the cookbook again and it fell open to page 94. I'm as susceptible to signs as ...


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SingleHop Review
SingleHop is the ultimate web host
SingleHop is a popular and renowned hosting provider that has been known since a long time in the field of web hosting. With guaranteed support, the staff and representatives at this company are available for help and assistance all 24*7; 365 days a year anytime you need their services. The best part about this web host is that it guarantees hundred percent network uptime. This ensures satisfied and happy customers for the company. What is more interesting about the web hosting provider is that there is one hour guaranteed hardware replacement.
SingleHop is in fact the ultimate solution for all your web hosting requirements. You can easily rely on the services offered by this web host and ensure that your site works best for your benefit. It has been seen that the visitors to a site return unsatisfied because of the time taken to load pages. With SingleHop, you can be sure that your site will load promptly thus ensuring more and more visitors each day. There is even the LLEAP server control available at this company. Further, you can enjoy 100 Mbsp port on all servers and there are even a huge plethora of web hosting plans made available by SingleHop for its customers.
You can also be sure of easy to begin and easy to use feature with this hosting company. There are a number of software that you can also get at this company including CentOS, Debian, Plesk, Windows Server 2003, cPanel and Windows Server 2008 among various others.
What you can test about this company is their 24*7 customer support service. Just call them at 3 AM and see how quickly and promptly they help you solve your queries. You can also enjoy the $200 cash back offer in case you switch from some competitor of the company.
Another exceptional quality worth noticing about the SingleHop is that they have dedicated account executive working for each single customer and so no matter the number of servers you are featured with, you can get help on all without any difficulty.
7 days money back scheme is also a nice feature of SingleHop. Unlike other web hosting service providers, SingleHop will not compel you to pay for full month in case you have decided to leave their services after some days. Last but not least, there is 5,000 GB of transfer standard and there are some servers as well that have the 10,000 GB transferring capability.


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PITTSBORO – Rev. James Earl Bell, 52, of Pittsboro, died Tuesday, Oct 1, 2013, at North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo. He was a member of Jackson Chapel M.B. Church, where he served as an associate minister, bible class teacher, youth department director, praise and worship leader and a keyboard and bass guitar player.
He was employed at Pontotoc Electric for the past 33 years. He also enjoyed spending time with his wife and children and fishing.
Services will be 1 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 6, at Jackson Chapel M.B. Church. Burial will be in Bruce Community Cemetery. Belle Memorial Funeral Home of Bruce is in charge of arrangements.
Survivors include his wife, Janice D. Bell; two sons, Mario Thompson of Bruce and Christopher Bell of Pittsboro; one daughter, Bethany Banks of Broadview, Ill.; his father, Revertis (Shirley) Bell of Bruce; one brother, Tommy Bell of Bruce; and seven sisters, Virgie Madkins and Jeanette Bobo, both of Bruce, Willie Hosch of Tupelo, Ruby Tolson of St. Louis, Mo., Pearlie Joseph of Davenport, Iowa, Charlotte Franklin of Hampton, Va., and Gwendolyn Johnson of Olive Branch.
Visitation will be from 4 to 6 p.m. Saturday at the funeral home.
An online register book can be accessed at www.bellememorialfuneralhome.com


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ANC to march on Zille, De Lille's officesComment on this story
Cape Town -
It's "all systems go" for a protest march to Western Cape Premier Helen Zille's and Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille's offices on Wednesday, ANC Western Cape secretary Songezo Mjongile says.
The march would be to demand housing and better services, and for an end to evictions, he said on Sunday and added that about 2 000 people would take part in the protest.
Despite not yet having received confirmation from the city on its application to march, Mjongile said they would go ahead.
"We have made an application to the city to march and we don't expect it to be unsuccessful. As far as I'm concerned, we have met all the requirements. It's all systems go for the ANC."
Mjongile said the ANC would transport marchers in from various communities.
"The people affected by issues of poor housing and decent service delivery will get chance to voice their frustration. It's time things change," he said.
When asked whether the march was in retaliation to the DA's planned march to Luthuli House on Tuesday, Mjongile denied the suggestion, saying the demonstration was part of an ongoing petition for the DA-run Western Cape provincial government to take better care of the poor.
"Our application to march came before the news of the DA's march to Luthuli," he said.
Zille's spokesman, Zak Mbhele, said the the DA welcomed the march if it stayed peaceful.
"We will be at the office to receive the memorandum handed over by the ANC," said Mbhele.
Mbhele said the march was clearly an attempt to garner votes.
Majole denied this, saying: "We are are here to represent the poor."
Cape Times
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text:
Hi everyone.
I'm 25 and want to go to america for 3 months. Want to have an experience ya know
The option of working for 3 months would be pretty cool too. Can anyone give me any adivce?
how hard is it to get a work visa?
I dont have a college education. Only a leaving cert.


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- Filed Under
Start your day right
» Tuesday's weather: Mainly cloudy, a little rain; breezy in the morning. Mostly cloudy, breezy and cool in the afternoon. Partly cloudy in the evening. Partly cloudy overnight. www.lohud.com/weather
Did you miss it?
» Corruption probe: Spring Valley's mayor and deputy mayor are scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in federal court in White Plains on charges resulting from an FBI-directed bribery investigation. http://lohud.us/Y0KXIl
Come back and see us
» Letters to Boston: The Boston Globe has published on its website more than two dozen messages written by students at Purchase College, SUNY, in support of the people of the city. http://lohud.us/13R3YiZ
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Not a subscriber? Subscribe now for digital-only or digital and home delivery full access subscriptions at www.lohud.com/subscribe.


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Mariners Fall, Nearing 100-Loss Plateau
Several weeks after it seemed Doug Fister might be hitting a wall in his first full season as a major league pitcher, the wall hit him Thursday night in his final start.
Fister allowed 13 hits in 5 1/3 innings and committed a balk that allowed the Oakland A's to score their first run in an 8-1 victory over the Seattle Mariners at Safeco Field.
He finished with a 6-14 record, including 11 losses in 19 starts since he spent most of June on the disabled list because of right shoulder fatigue.
"It's a growing year. It's something new to me, to be up here a full year," Fister said. "I look to grow on that next year, set some goals a little higher next year and be ready for it."
Along with Fister, the Mariners hit their own wall in a sloppy game that featured the balk, two errors, a wild pitch and a botched pickoff play. The Mariners wasted a bases-loaded opportunity in the fourth inning and scored only on Greg Halman's RBI grounder in the eighth.
The loss was the Mariners' 98th this season, meaning they must win two of their final three games to avoid the fifth season in franchise history — and the second in the past two years — with at least 100 losses.
Fister's 28th start this season followed a pattern similar to several others, when one bad inning hurt him. This time it was the fifth after he'd held the A's scoreless despite allowing six hits through four innings.
Then everything went wrong.
The A's scored four runs with two outs, aided when Fister lost his balance and committed a balk with the bases loaded as he prepared to deliver a pitch to Mark Ellis.
Fister faced three batters in the sixth inning and they all hit him hard, including Chris Carter, whose two-run homer gave the A's a 6-0 lead.
It was Fister's final hitter of the season.
Workload has been a concern with Fister, whose 171 innings this season fell two short of the 173 he pitched last year in the major and minor leagues combined. Still, the shoulder problem in June stalled what had been a nice start to the season, when Fister was 3-3 through his first 10 starts.
After he came back from the disabled list, Fister went 3-11 with a 5.24 ERA.
"It's a learning process. I've got a lot of time to think about it and learn from it," Fister said. "I feel like I belong here. I've got to go out there and prove it every day."
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text:
Chapter one: The Ice Empire
The wind howled over the icy capes of the mountains. The snow blew swiftly over the deep footprints of an animal; that had dragged its feet over the untouched crystals that formed the snow. Beside them, biped ones; a symbol of life and harmony between animal and man. But as the wind picked up speed they were soon covered and to be forgotten.
The Empire of Ice was vast; it reached as far as the frozen ocean, Neva, and to the edges of the thick mountains that were capped with snow. But the city did not reach the mountains, instead the city kept to the ocean, Neva, where they could harvest the Sweet Fish that crawled to land in spring.
But spring in the Ice Empire was not spring at all. It was just a celebration the Ice people had made up. The King that sat upon the Ice throne was no king at all. Only a mere coward that feared one day, his great Empire would collapse. In this time of fear he sought out for a great leader to lead his troops through the mountains and kill off any enemy or traitor before he expanded his Empire. Here he would gain more power without fear, except he did not see the little problem that was going to happen.
The city was radiant in the sunlight. The snow crunched softly under my wolven hide boots. My dark hair billowed in the wind as my eyes scanned over the dazzling Ice city. I huffed out; the mist twisting up into the air to disappear. A soft purr followed close to me; the black silk coat waved gently in the slight wind that picked up over the scape. His deep blue eyes copied mine; watching the city then they adjusted to look at me.
"Come, Xcavis." I called to the Panther before pushing through the untouched snow. The sun was touching every area of the land; the crystals in the snow beamed their rainbows toward us. My sword hung against my thigh as we pushed on further into the rocks, away from the city.
Away from the city was more dangerous but as a nomad, I had grown immune to the eerie darkness. It was more soothing to know I was surrounded by pure untamed creatures and harsh elements. The city almost seemed to fake; with their ice carvings and structures.
Xcavis trailed behind me, his black paws pushing away snow before he stepped down. The frosted plants were frozen in their young stage till spring. The Ice people thought it was just a celebration but no, the spring brought new life; like the Sweet Fish and new plants to harvest.
The mountains were now coming into view; showing off their great size. The soft growl of Xcavis sent a smile to my lips as he pounced ahead through the thinning snow which was turning to rock. Laughing, I jogged after him; just in the rock was an opening to where our cave lain in wait. Xcavis was already ahead; bounding into the darkness. His tail disappearing after his body. Crouching low to my knees, I slid inside to find our fire still burning with a dim glow. The heat felt good on my chilled skin as Xcavis curled up on his wolven bed of furs. His blue eyes met mine as he watched me sit before the fire and add more Gale Stones.
Gale Stones weren't even stones at all. They are special crafted from the rocks near the ocean, Neva. If crafted right, they can easily keep a fire going for hours and even days. My fingers pushed back the dark strands of hair from my face as I leaned over for my Mandolin and pack. From my pack, I withdrew two Sweet Fish, one which I threw to Xcavis and one for myself.
Xcavis growled softly as he looked from me to the Mandolin that lay beside me. His paws casing in the dead Sweet Fish; waiting for me to begin. Rolling my eyes, I placed the Sweet Fish to the side and picked up the Mandolin. I softly cleared my throat and strummed the strings gently before singing:
"High above the battles' storm
There lies a kingdom with heaven's door
We tell you, we tell you there's peace at end
With power, oh, power the storm carries on
Oh, ohm, oohh, ohm, oh
High above the battles' storm raises a warrior who's fierce and strong
Oh hush little one Oh hush little one, there's peace at end
This is not the end
For this warrior we sing again
Give him strength for this is not...the end..."
A few good more strums and as my eyes lifted to look at Xcavis, he was asleep on the furs. I wiped a tear from my cheek and looked out the small slit of the rocky cave that surrounded me. My mother had once sung that song to me when my father went to war. She called it The Warrior's Song. While she sung that to me, the fate was set. My father would see an end and I would never see him again.
Shaking my head to rid the memories; I stood but as I stood it felt like the cave was collapsing. I fell back to the ground as everything shook around me. Xcavis was on his feet; trying to steady himself.
"Get out Xcavis! Run!" I screamed as rocks began to fall from above. In easy movements, he slipped out of the cave leaving me crawling to gather everything. Pulling everything into my bag, I stood and ran to the entrance; rocks smashing to the ground around me. I threw my bag out first then I crawled through, I flung myself into the snow. After a split second of lying there, I shot up and grabbed the pack and ran from the tumbling rocks. The snow was slipping off the rocks into a huge avalanche. Xcavis was running as fast as he could. Catching up to him, everything was nearly a blur but it all stopped when I felt the ground leave my feet. Cliff! My mind screamed as I shut my eyes and felt the air rushing past me.
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