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Not so this year in Longmont.
This year, Longmont's municipal election is a decidedly divisive, uncivil and partisan affair, pitting a total of 10 candidates against one another in three races for a total of four City Council seats mayor, two at-large seats and the Ward II seat. Everyone knows who's a Democrat and who's a Republican. Rather than robust debate about issues, one is likely to encounter heated allegations, buzzwords and conspiracy theories. Online it gets even more heated with angry blogs, profanity-laced comments and violent imagery.
So what's going on in Longmont to turn what might have been a snoozer of a municipal election into a virtual brawl? Like everything having to do with city politics in Longmont these days, the answer depends on whom you ask.
Some say the conflict is fallout from the controversy surrounding the failed annexation of property owned by LifeBridge Christian Church. Others say it's a power struggle between a moneyed and conservative "old guard" and those who want change in the city. Still others say it's about growth vs. no growth, pro-business vs. anti-business.
Regardless, it's clear that today's discord starts with LifeBridge's proposed development of about 340 acres in Weld County east of Longmont.
The catalyst
LifeBridge Christian Church is not your average church. Located off Highway 66 in Longmont, it offers its members not only worship services, but classes and a gym offering weights and personal trainers and classes like "Express Pilates" and "Fit Chick Express Workout." The church includes so many members that the average Sunday service requires the presence of law enforcement to direct traffic out of the parking lot.
In 2006, the Corporation for Community Christian Connection, the business arm of the church, known as 4C, approached the Longmont City Council, asking that the council annex Project LifeBridge, the church's proposed development of about 313 acres of land located on the northeast corner of the intersection of Highway 119 and Weld County Road 3. In a letter dated April 18, 2006, 4C described Project LifeBridge as including: 175 single-family dwelling units on 93.7 acres; 67 single-family and attached residential dwelling units on 20 acres; 75 mixed-use residential dwelling units (to include single-family homes, attached homes, townhomes and apartments) on 28.1 acres; 57.4 acres for future civic and religious uses; 39.6 acres for future mixed use (to include commercial on the ground floor and commercial, residential and religious uses on second and third floors); 43 acres of open space; and 31.3 acres of right-of-way.
At build-out, anticipated in about 2026, the fiscal analysis provided by 4C indicated that Longmont would enjoy about $1.2 million in fiscal surplus from the annexation that is, surplus income generated in taxes and fees after city expenditures in supporting the development.
The proposal received a positive response from then-Mayor Julia Pirnack and City Council but widespread opposition from members of the Longmont community, who objected to the scope of the project. They saw not a church expansion but a church subdivision, one that might result in a net loss to the city of Longmont. Because Colorado law is very liberal in what it permits churches to declare as tax-exempt, some residents feared that the city would spend more setting up and maintaining services for Project LifeBridge water, electricity, sewer, a fire station, law enforcement than it would get in city taxes and fees. Many were also leery of having what was tantamount to a small town and a religious one at that springing up on their eastern border near Union Reservoir, an area many had hoped to set aside as open space. They questioned why a church needed to build million-dollar homes, retail shops or a sports complex.
These objections were viewed by those who favored the development as being fundamentally anti-religious in nature, and an ordinance accepting the annexation was passed and adopted by the Longmont City Council on Aug. 14, 2007, on a 6-to-1 vote.
The dissenting vote was Karen Benker, who'd been appointed to council to fill a vacancy in the Ward II seat in 2005, then re-elected later that year.
Whether most Longmont residents realized it or not, Project LifeBridge immediately became the hot-button issue going into the November 2007 election. Benker was joined on City Council by three others who had similar points of view Sarah Levison (at-large), Sean McCoy (Ward III) and Brian Hansen (Ward I). For the first time, Longmont City Council, known for being conservative, was dominated by a progressive element.
And that, say some, is when the real conflict began.
A shift to the left
Stephanie Baum, whose husband Bryan is running for mayor, says there was a time when she wasn't interested in city politics, sometimes not even casting her vote. But the November 2007 election changed that.
The progressive candidates received money from the Democratic Party and were mentored by a progressive organization that tries to get its agenda in on the local level, she alleges.
"That really upset me," she says. "I don't want my local government being dictated by Republicans or Democrats. I want it run by people who care about what is affecting Longmont."
Chris Rodriguez, a blogger who frequently writes about Longmont City Council issues and whose blogs list Baum as a contributor, agrees that the turning point in Longmont politics was the 2007 municipal election.
"There was a sea change here in 2007 with a new group of council members that came in," he says.
Some people were shocked by that change, he says.
"What happened," says Kaye Fissinger, one of five candidates vying for the two at-large seats, "is that those who had held power in Longmont for a very long, long period of time expected to be able to continue to hold power and were flabbergasted when the election went the way it did. They've been getting more and more angry."
Some observers say the election of Benker, Levison, Hansen and McCoy was in part the result of changing demographics in Longmont. Because Longmont has remained open to residential growth, homes and apartments are much more affordable than they are in neighboring cities, especially Boulder. As a result, thousands of Boulder residents have migrated eastward, often bringing with them a progressive Boulder ideology. The election simply foreshadowed the statewide shift from red to blue that happened at the polls the following year during the general election, some say.
"Longmont is on the cusp right now," Fissinger says. "It's changing. We have grown very rapidly in the past 30 years. We've had people move here from Boulder. We've had people move here from other parts of the country. And with that, thinking has changed.
Longmont isn't now what it used to be. We're kind of at pivotal point right now."
According to the Boulder County Clerk's office, Democrats now outnumber Republicans in Longmont, though the largest single block of voters are unaffiliated with either party.
But conservative Longmont residents say that voters who opposed the LifeBridge development were motivated to get to the polls that year, while those who supported it and who tend to vote conservatively weren't paying attention and didn't vote.
"I know people try and say it's shifting," Stephanie Baum says. "Yes, there has been a small shift, but I think what happened was that the conservatives the vast majority of independents here tend to be more conservative and all of those people were just complacent."
In January 2008, those who didn't like the election results had their chance to take action or as some say, to take revenge. "Don't Boulderize Longmont" became a rallying cry for those, like Baum, who were unhappy with the election.
Because Councilman Roger Lange had been elected mayor, his at-large seat needed to be filled by special election. Richard Juday ran against Gabe Santos, who had lost a bid for council the previous November.
Rodriguez describes that election as "pretty heated and involved."
Rodriguez, who has blogged about city politics for years, says that until that election, no one really paid attention to what he had to say.
After that election, however, he drew in scores of readers and found himself being quoted in and writing guest columns for the Longmont Times-Call and Yellow Scene.
Baum launched her own blog at takebacklongmont.blogspot.com, where she criticized the new council members and campaigned vigorously for Santos, warning her readers that the Boulderization of Longmont was underway. Though some found the tone of Baum's blogs to be partisan and bitter Juday says he was personally hurt by some of the accusations and rhetoric aimed his way Baum says she feels she conducted herself well.
"As far as I'm concerned, I conducted myself civilly in that when I stated something incorrect, I admitted it and said, 'I messed up,'" she says. "There have been bloggers on the opposing side who have put out absolute lies, I will say, and when confronted won't admit it. It's hard. I myself am trying to conduct myself civilly."
Though her blog remains online, Baum no longer posts because her husband is running for office.
"Anything I say is going to be turned around by the other side to vilify me," she says. "Rather than putting myself in that position, I'm just not writing anything."
Bryan Baum says that if the tone of his wife's blog was objectionable, it was only in reaction to the incivility of others.
"It seems that there's a sector of the community that wishes to pursue this negativity," he says. "The people who are now wanting to be civil are the ones who started this."
Juday's blog from that period of time is no longer online.
But Juday says he was attacked personally and unfairly, including a mailing of postcards that included "misquotes." The mailing was funded by a 527 group out of Denver, he says, just one example of the "big money" that came to bear in that election.
"I just didn't think that had any place in Longmont politics," Juday says. "This is a nice little town. I would like for the campaigns to stay local. I don't think the Denver folks have a place in a local election."
But the at-large seat wasn't the only issue on the January 2008 ballot. Those who opposed the LifeBridge annexation began gathering signatures to have the matter placed on the special election ballot. They quickly gathered more than 6,000 signatures, prompting LifeBridge to withdraw its request for annexation, putting an apparent end to the matter.
In the end, Santos won with more than 60 percent of the vote, proof, conservatives say, that Longmont hasn't changed that much. But that still left Longmont with a progressive majority on its council and a well-financed development project waiting to break ground on its eastern flank. And as the months went by it became clear that the conflict in this "All America" city had only begun.
Lawsuits and more lawsuits
As some are eager to point out, a lot of money is tied up in LifeBridge's development plans, not only in terms of investments made by 4C and church members, but also in construction materials, retail earnings, taxes and fees and all of the other modes of profit associated with development. It's not surprising that LifeBridge turned elsewhere for annexation.
As it turned out, Firestone was eager for the development that Longmont residents turned away. In order to annex the property,
Firestone has attempted a couple of "flagpole" annexations, claiming land along Highway 119 on the south side of the LifeBridge property and along Weld County Road 26 to the north.
The city of Longmont has attempted to block Firestone's annexations to keep LifeBridge from breaking ground, but it the effort hasn't been fruitful. According to Jay Rourke, deputy city attorney for Longmont, there are currently six lawsuits revolving around the LifeBridge issue currently residing with the Court of Appeals.
"The Weld District Court has ruled that Longmont's annexation of its property just south of 119 was done illegally, and that would affect our ability to annex a portion of 119," Rourke says. "That one the city has appealed. On the north side, the district court ruled that Firestone's annexation of the Union parcel, which includes a portion of Weld County Road 26, is valid. The court also ruled that Longmont's annexation of this same property up there, including the same portion of Weld County Road 26, is also valid. And that case now has been appealed by Firestone."
Longmont is also appealing the court's decision that the city pay Firestone's legal fees, a ruling that could cost Longmont taxpayers almost $200,000 in the end.
The City Council's handling of the LifeBridge issue is one thing that continues to inflame conservatives, who believe the suits should be dropped and development allowed to proceed.
"That is just mean-spirited," Bryan Baum says. "There's just no place for that. That's not Longmont."
But Benker defends the council's actions, pointing to the multi-million-dollar investment that the city has already made in property near Union Reservoir with the intention of creating an open-space buffer between Longmont and its Weld County neighbors. She believes City Council is being a responsible caretaker of those lands and of Longmont's status as a "stand-alone" community with buffers between it and neighboring towns.
"I don't want to be the City Council that loses our stand-alone status," she says.
If allowed to proceed, the LifeBridge development would press against the city's eastern border, creating what many opposed in the first place a subdivision on the edge of the city.
But arguing about LifeBridge doesn't stop with debating the issue. Conservatives accuse progressives and council members of being anti-religion.
"I've been called everything anti-Christian, anti-religion, pagan, accused of doing voodoo and, you know, eating children," says community activist and blogger Doug Wray. "Some of the stuff that was said was just ridiculous. To be completely blunt, I'm a Methodist."
Progressives, on the other hand, hint to a web of friendships and monetary relationships between those who want the lawsuits dropped and power brokers within 4C and LifeBridge.
Bryan Baum shakes that aside. "I have nothing to do with LifeBridge Church. I'm not connected with it in any way shape or form. I'm an outsider looking in."
But LifeBridge's development plans aren't the only areas in which the City Council's four liberal members continue to take a drubbing.
The Longmont Times-Call is suing the city over council members' use of executive session to discuss the Firestone lawsuits, while others, including blogger Rodriguez, are suing the city over revisions made to the city's campaign finance law, which they say is too restrictive of free speech.
But over the course of the past year, and in gearing up for next month's election, the conflict over these issues and others has escalated to a level that observers say they've never seen before.
Longmont's identity crisis
In the year and a half that has followed the special election, those involved with city politics, including bloggers and community activists, have polarized more or less along party lines. During any given month, City Council will take an action with Benker, Levison, Hansen and McCoy often, but not always, voting together and immediately those who oppose them will disparage that action through online commentary, letters to the editor and video footage of council meetings uploaded to YouTube.
Although the words "Republican" and "Democrat" are eschewed, a new political terminology filled with buzzwords has emerged. To those on the right, Benker, Levison, Hansen and McCoy are the "gang of four" or the "bloc of four" or the "fringe." They're "anti-business" and "anti-religious" and bring a "Boulderized" point of view to the city.
Progressives, on the other hand, use phrases like "old guard" and "The Powers that Were" to describe conservative elements in town, accusing them of never seeing an annexation or development they didn't like.
It's akin to a culture war or an identity crisis with two sides of Longmont vying for expression.
"I think there really is vast, vast difference now between those of us who've been here that they're calling the 'old guard' and those that are newer to the community," says Leona Stoecker, former Longmont mayor. "I know it's nave to say this, but I always considered myself a servant of the people. I sense there's a desire for power or something I don't know what it is. But it horrifies me to think that people lack that much civility."
While bloggers and others who support the current City Council have lobbed verbal barbs at former mayors, including Stoecker, and other prominent citizens, much of the vitriol coming from the right is aimed at Benker.
Last month, a company from Virginia apparently launched a push poll against Benker. "They asked questions like, 'If you knew that Karen Benker was in favor of welfare for illegal immigrants, would you be more likely or less likely to vote for her?'" she says.
She learned of the poll from several residents who called her to warn her about it. The poll harms her credibility by raising non-existent issues and making implications about her stance on those issues with voters who might not know anything about her, she says.
In addition, someone hired Greg Burt, a journalist who used to work for Marilyn Musgrave, to investigate her, she says. Where the
money is coming from for these endeavors, she says, makes her wonder if another 527 group is involved.
By far the worst edge of hostility in this race can be found on the Internet. Though Rodriguez's blog posts are viewed as hostile by many progressives, who decry their FOX News-like quality, he polices them and deletes comments that resort to profanity. However, profanity-laced anonymous comments abound elsewhere.
But by far the worst online site is FrontRangeChickens.com, an anonymous blog which features banner art depicting Benker, McCoy, Hansen, Levison, Fissinger, Wray and Juday as chickens about to be decapitated by a Braveheart-esque figure bearing an ax. Benker, who's being held by the neck, is shown as being the first to go.
"They all work together, and Karen Benker's part of that," Bryan Baum says. "She's kind of the ring leader. To me, that's what that said. You know, Braveheart. She seems to be the ringleader of the whole bunch. It's hard to connect the dots, but that's what overwhelmingly it seems as though."
But to observers on the other side, including those depicted in it, the artwork seems like a not-so-subtle incitement to violence.
The problem has become so pronounced that Juday has joined together with another progressive, two prominent conservatives and a moderate to form the Longmont Civil Campaign Committee, which is self-tasked with keeping the campaigns civil.
"We haven't entirely formalized everything that we do, but we are examining some current issues," Juday says. "We are united in the purpose that this campaign shall work to present Longmont as the friendly city that we know it to be."
If the members of the committee see behavior they believe to be out of bounds, they'll first contact that person privately and ask them to consider whether "getting ugly" is truly in their interests and in the interest of Longmont. If that doesn't work, a public denouncement may follow.
But the committee itself, despite its balanced makeup, has drawn sharp criticism from the right.
"I've got real issues with the committee, because I personally don't think they're so unbiased," Rodriguez says. "I do think they have an ax to grind, and I do think they have an agenda. People are people. I don't care if they're conservatives or not They're not an elected body. They're not an official body. They're nothing really."
Rodriguez says if he's publicly denounced for exercising his right to free speech on his blog, he'll take issue with it.
Stoecker says she's appalled that the situation has devolved to this point.
"I just cringed when I saw that Mr. Juday felt there was a need for a commission on civility," she says. "That's just beyond anything I could ever imagine would happen in this community. It really hurts me to see this kind of a thing. There's just no reason for it. We should be dealing with issues."


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Human Centipede Photos.. Messed Up!Meh
Alien25 shot us a link to some photos for a new film called Human Centipede which will be making its debut at FrightFilmFest in Uk. DreadCentral gives us the following plot and INSANE photos.
"Outside the more outré work of Takashi Miike and David Cronenberg, you won't have seen anything quite like Dutch avant-garde artist Tom Six's totally bizarre off-the-wall oddity. Internationally respected Siamese twin surgeon Dr. Josef Heiter has a demented vision for mankind's future existence. He wants to remove human beings' kneecaps so they have to exist on all fours and then surgically graft them mouth-to-anus to form a centipede chain. When two stranded female Americans arrive at his luxury home-cum-hospital looking for help, his long-gestating plan swiftly moves into chilling action with a shocking force. Kidnapping a third Japanese male tourist, he begins the tissue matches, teeth removal, and buttock moulding to create his triplet creature… The First Sequence in Six's intended trilogy features truly unforgettable imagery, clinically dazzling direction, and a so-far-round-the-bend mad doctor performance from German superstar Dieter Laser you'll scream. Behold the grotesque New Flesh. If you dare!"

subset: commoncrawl


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Profile of Kaduna State
Present Kaduna State especially its capital, Kaduna was the centre of the Northern Regional Government from 1957 – 1967. Later the state was known as North Central State between 1967 – 1975. In 1976, when the General Murtala Mohammed administration created seven new states in Nigeria, North Central State, with capital at Kaduna, was renamed Kaduna State. It was made up of the two colonial provinces of Zaria and Katsina.
In 1987 Kaduna State was divided into two to create Katsina State out of the then Kaduna State. There are twenty three local government areas (LGAs) in the state, although the number of ethnic groups is much larger.
Kaduna State occupies the central portion of Northern Nigeria and lies between latitude 90 and 140 North of the equator with a time of one hour ahead of the Greenwich Mean Time.
The State has two distinct seasons, the dry season and rainy season. The temperature is hot during the dry season and cool during the rainy season, from November to February the cold dry hamattan wind blows across the State, the Northern part of the state being, affected most. The southern part of the State enjoys heavier rainfall than the Northern part; lasting between 5-6 months in the Southern part and 4-5 months in the Northern part of the state. Generally the rains start in April and end in October.
The state extends from tropical grassland (savannah) in the South to Sudan Savannah in the North. The Savannah region of the State covers the Southern part stretching to Gwantu, South of Kafanchan with prevailing vegetation of tall trees. The Sudan or Sahel Savannah covers the northern part of the state, stretching from Zaria down to Ikara and its environs. The grasses (called "veld") with short trees are sparsely distributed. The plants here are draught resistant. A common tree here is the Baobab which in appearance resembles an Oak tree. Also found are Ocacia trees. Kaduna State shares common borders with Kano, Katsina, Zamfara, Niger, Nassarawa, Plateau, Bauchi States and Abuja the Federal Capital Territory. Its landmass of 45,567 square kilometers, with an estimated population of 6,066,562 makes it the 3rd most populous State in the Federation.
The State has vast expanse of fertile land growing both food and cash crops like rice, cassava, ginger, potatoes, millet, groundnut, shea-nut, benni-seed and soya beans aside from animal husbandry. Its major rivers are River Kaduna (from where the State derives its name), Gurara, Kogon, Matsirga (River Wonderful) and Galma, in addition to several streams. All of these-provide opportunities for irrigation and fish farming. Available studies shows that Kaduna State has huge deposits of mineral resources like Gold, Kaolin, Columbite, Aquamarine and Sapphire to mention a few that exist in the 23 Local Government Area.
The life of the people of the State has been greatly influenced by this geographical setting. The two climatic conditions in the State greatly influence activities of the people, thus the people are predominantly occupied in agriculture during the rainy season which lasts for about six months from May to October, while they engage in hunting and petty trading during the dry season.
The People
Kaduna State has over 60 ethnic groups. Major languages spoketh in the State include Hausa, Fulani, Gbagyi, Bajju, Atyap, Jaba, Koro, Kaninkon, Adara, Chawai, Atakar, Gure, Ikulu, Kurama, Kagoma, Kahugu, Kagoro, Maro'a, Numana, Gwandara and many more. Like other parts of Nigeria, English is spoken as the official language, while Hausa is widely spoken which makes it a Lingua-franca in the State.
Kaduna State is one of the most densely populated states in the Federation. This is as a result of its liberal nature as it accommodates people of diverse culture. It has a population of over 6 million (2006 census) some of the major ethnic groups in the State include Hausa,Gbagyi, Fulani, Bajju, Ham, Atyap, Moroa, Ikulu, Akurmi, Gwong, Aegrok. Adara, Chawai, Ninzo and Numana.
Below are population figures of Kaduna State, covering the 23 Local Government Areas based on the 2006 census:
Kaduna State PopulationFollowing is population figures of Kaduna State, Nigeria based on Local Government Area based on the 2006 census
|Birnin Gwari
|Sabon Gari
With a vibrant, highly educated and industrious manpower, Kaduna State is a fertile ground for investment especially in agriculture, agro-allied ventures. Kaduna city is a major centre for thriving manufacturing and service industrial activity. Kaduna State is blessed with abundant mineral resources such as molbite, aquamarine sapphires, and gold. Cash crops grown in the State include cotton, groundnut, tobacco, sugarcane, ginger, chilies, sheanut and soya bean. Animal reared in the state are cattle, sheep, goat and poultry.
Agriculture, Forestry and other Basic Activities:
The agriculture and forest resources are enormous. On the gentle rolling high plains, the tropical ferruginous soils have been intensively used for cereal and cotton cultivation. Although the soils are poor because of leaching and poor cover management, but with good conservation and land management practices it is capable of supporting calciumrich annual grass for livestock develop ment.
In the north of latitude 10°N, the soil is good for production of large quantities of cotton lint and seed for which Soba, Makarfi, Kudan, lkara, Kubau, Kauru and Lere LGAs are known. Yam and maize have successfully been producing high yields with the use of fertiliser in recent times, especially in Igabi, Giwa and Bimin Gwari LGAs. In the well watered southeastern part, the rich darker soils are used for cultivating cereals, cassava, rice and the famous Southern Kaduna ginger ("Chitta" in Hausa).
In the fadamas, the dark grey clay soils (vertisols) have become highly valued and are focused on for intensive agricultural activities especially dur ing the dry season. Large areas of such fadamas are being used for economically valuable market gardening for growing tomatoes, chillies, sweet pepper, okra, onion, Irish potato and sugar cane using traditional "shadoof" irrigation (in the flood plains/fadama of Galma and Tubo basins).
Presently, the traditional irrigation scheme is too small and laborious to cope with the rate of expan sion and agricultural development of the fadama lands. The State Government is intensifying feasi bility studies and seeking interested industrialists and agroallied companies to invest in the area. In April 1993, the State Government approved the commissioning of pilot schemes for sugar process ing industry in Makarfi, Kudan, lkara and Kubau LGAs using the sugar cane grown under irrigation and rain systems.
Recently, grapevine growing has been intro duced and has gained wide acceptance on small but intensively cultivated farms. A few large scale vineyards have also been established on the lower Galma valley near Zaria. Small farm holdings of ten to fifteen vines produce between 200 and 300 kg. That these small farms produce mainly for local markets, in Kaduna, Kano, Plateau and the Federal Capital Territory, suggests that the state has con siderable potential for vineyard development. Except in some favourable localities along the riverine areas and in the southern LGAs, there is limited forest resources.
Much of the woody shrubs in the northern parts have been felled for fuel wood. Because of the annual bush fires during the long dry season, the grass straw traditionally used for roofing in the rural areas are becoming scarce. In the south, there are good stands of hard tropical trees such as mahogany and raffia palm bushes.
These are still being exploited for building construction. State and local governments are embarking on improving the vegetation cover in the state by planting fastgrowing and drought resistant trees in large plantations, called Forest Reserves. Despite a substantial fraction of the state's annual budget being allocated to the development of agriculture, productivity is still comparatively low.
This is partly because of the shyness of the State Government in getting involved in commercial agriculture and partly because of the many different arms of the Ministry that make demands on the limited financial resources. So, like the Federal Government, Kaduna State has concentrated on encouraging farmers, by providing certain capital intensive infrastructure (e.g. irrigation, earth dams like in the Tubo valley), supplying them with improved seeds and subsidising farm inputs.
Since most farmers lack the capital and are not ready to take risks, only a handful of individuals (mostly retired military officers and top civil servants) have involved themselves in mediumscale commercial agriculture. Even so, majority only grow grains (especially maize and beans) to meet local market demands or use it for personal small livestock breeding. An entrepreneur, UAC Farms, in the late 1980s, started investing in commercial grain farming at Kidandan, some 90km east of Zaria along Birnin Gwari Road.
However, the venture is now produc ing improved seeds for farmers, mainly maize, sorghum and rice. Certainly, with increasing demands for cereals, livestock feeds and as raw materials for breweries; and presently, because it is practically nonexistent in the state, commercial agriculutre in grains on a large scale will be highly profitable.
Despite the present poor rangeland conserva tion and management practices, Kaduna State has the potentials to produce large quantities and good quality livestock for consumption in the state and for interstate trade. Indeed, the area bounded by parallel 10°30′ and longitude 8°00′ westward, possess es development potential for excellent range land to support largescale livestock production. The National Animal Production Research Institute (NAPRI) at Shika near Zaria also offers good vet erinary/technical advice and services.
There is good infrastructure already established for good takeoff of beef, mutton, pork, poultry and dairy products in large quantities for national markets. Furthermore, based on the livestock rearing habits, love for it as food, and a probably large market for pork in the area and many southern states, there is need for a good piggery industry in the southern Kaduna area.
Livestock: Livestock resources in the state are still on a small scale, and are used mainly to raise cash during emergencies or meet demands during religious festivals. Based on the 1991 live stock survey in urban Zaria and its rural fringe alone, there were over 16,000 heads of cattle (zebu), about 180,000 goats,138,000 sheep and rams, 10,000 pigs, 55,000 rabbits and over 880,000 birds (poultry, mainly chicken, kept in commercial farm pens and on traditional freerange in compounds).
In the southern parts, pig rearing is dominant. The number of pigs in the area is not known. However, considering the urban livestock surveys in Zaria and Kaduna in 1991, most of the pigs are kept and owned by people from Jama'a, Sanga, Zango Kataf, Jaba, Kachia and Kagarko LGAs.
In Birnin Gwari LGA, the graphite, kyanite and rutile reported to be in large quantities are good sources of raw materials for pencils and welding electrodes and ceramic industries. Even the ease to mine magnetite/haematite in the same locality is still being exploited locally for making local iron implements; but it has the potential to support small to medium furnace for productioh of iron billets that can in turn be used in small scale industries. Also, some broad river valleys in the north western quadrant are rich sources of sand and granite rocks (for crushing) and clay (especially) kaolinite that are already being exploited in the building industry.
Existing Industries:
Almost all the industries in Kaduna State are located in Zaria and Kaduna urban centres. Indeed, all the heavy manufacturing industrial establishments are concentrated in Kaduna alone. Certainly, the locations are influ enced by government policy and probably market. For example, the high concentration of textile manufacturing industries in Kaduna with just two in Zaria, and none in Soba, Maigana or Saminaka which are cottonproducing towns, illustrate the strong governmental control.
Also, the Federal Government's decisions in the mid1970s to locate a petroleum refinery and an automobile assembly plant (PAN) in the city, further widened its industrial growth base and increased the agglomeration in Makera/Tudun Wada, Kakuri, along Kachia Road. Other major manufacturing industries in the city include Super Phosphate Fertiliser Company Ltd., National Oil and Chemical Company Ltd and Petro chemical Company Ltd. Again, all these are Federal Government Parastatals.
Local Sourcing of Raw Materials:
Some cultivated crops require special mention for their potentials as sources of raw materials in some localities of the state. Sugar cane, grown in the flat fadamas, has been discussed. Its production is still in small individual farmers' plots of 1 hectare along the Galma and Tubo valleys.
There are two varieties, the white and brown. However, the brown variety has gained more popularity recently because it gives higher yield per hectare. On aver age, an individual farmer harvests 1215 tonnes of the cane per year which sells for between N10,000.00 and N15,000.00.
Apart from its use as a refreshment among the local people, some quan tity is being used for making local candy ("Alawa" in Hausa) and brown sugar ("MazarKwoila" in Hausa) in Makarfi and lkara LGAs in the Galma river sys tem. Ginger, a spicy rhizome plant grown in the local government areas south of latitude 10°00′N, was a major national export up till the onset of heavy petroleum exportation in the mid 1960s.
High pro duction from the state made Nigeria a world pro ducer of ginger since the 1930s. Although export has declined, production in large tonnage has not abated. A market survey carried out in Kwoi district, a major producing area, estimates that up to 460 tonnes are produced annually in Jaba LGA alone.
Another agricultural commodity that is already an industrial raw material is tobacco leaf, grown mainly in Soba LGA since the 1930s. The success of a tobacco pilot farm project at Maigana, gave the district the lead in becoming a major national tobac coproducing area with a curing centre.
A training school was established for local farmers in 1986 and is located at Tashar Iche for Fifteen -thirty students at any one time/season. Besides, a factory with current labour force of over 3,500 is located in Zaria. The company manufactures several brands of cigarettes running into several million sticks annually. Cotton is also an important agricultural product that has high development potentialities.
The trial of a crossbreed of the local variety, the Gossypium hirsutum and the 26J (N.A) at Zaria during the first decade of the last century, gave Kaduna State a long history of its production. By the mid1930s, cotton production from northern Nigeria, mainly centred in Zaria, increased and now produced over 98 percent of the total cotton lint demands. With the establishment of ginneries, the Cotton Agricultural Processing Company (former BCGA), cotton seed is processed for oil and livestock feeds.
However, as yet, there are only two textile manu facturing industries in Zaria (Tarpaulin Manufacturing). Certainly, the establishment of other light textile industries or cotton yarn will fur ther stimulate cotton production in Soba, Igabi, Giwa and Zaria LGAs.
Improvement in the health status of the people of Kaduna State is been achieved by the Ministry of Health through the following:
1. Healthcare Leadership and Governance
Creation of the State Primary Health Care Agency (SPHCA) to improve access to integrated and qualitative health care to people at the grassroots level.
Creation of the Drug Management Agency (DMA) to ensure availability of affordable and quality drugs at all times in all health facilities in the state.
Implementation of 90% CONMESS and 70% CONHESS in the Health Sector which has served to motivate the Health workforce.
Professionalization of the Ministry of Health by appointing health professionals to key positions.
Development and dissemination of Kaduna State Strategic Development Plan (2011-2015).
Development of medium Term Sector Strategy (MTSS) from where our annual operational plans are prepared. This has introduced fiscal discipline in budgeting and expenditure.
The regular implementation of "incentive based" rural posting.
Active personal commitment and involvement of His Excellency, Sir Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa in health programs especially the polio eradication initiative.
2. Health Services Delivery
Sustenance of pro-poor programmes:
a) Free maternal and child health programme for pregnant women and children below the age of 5 years
b) War against Malaria – 2.5 million LLITNs distributed with 87% coverage achieved.
c) Anti Retroviral treatment programmes
d) Tuberculosis and Leprosy treatment programmes
e) Conduct of free medical missions: this year, over 600 patients benefited from various types of surgeries carried out on them
f) Highly subsidized eye care servives: 21,793 patients benefited from surgeries, eye glasses and other forms of treatment.
g) Deferrals and Exemptions (D&E) from our sustainable drug supply system. This programme caters for indigent patients and accident victims.
h) Emergency Transport System (ETS) – over 600 pregnant women in labour were transported free of charge to health facilities from March – October 2012. This programme is in collaboration with PATHS-2 and NURTW and covers only four LGAs for now. Efforts are actively on to scale it up to the remaining LGAs.
Production and dissemination of Kaduna State Standard Treatment Guidelines and Essential Medicines List to all health facilities in the state.
Various contracts have been awarded for construction of new units (Intensive care unit, Dialysis and academic block), rehabilitation, expansion, remodeling of existing units and upgrading of Barau Dikko Specialist Hospital to a Teaching Hospital.
Contracts for the construction and expansion of 68 Primary Health Care Centres (PHCs) spread equitably over the three senatorial zones of the state have been awarded.
Work on rehabilitation, expansion and upgrading of one PHC to a Rural Hospital has reached advance stage.
Procurement of Endoscopic Machines which have been installed in three referral and zonal hospitals (Barau Dikko Specialist Hospital, general Hospital Kafanchan and Hajiya Gambo Sawaba general hospital, Zaria). This will improve the quality of service provided.
3. Human Resources for Health
A Human Resources for Health Policy Guidelines and Human Resources for Health Strategic Plan were developed and disseminated.
There are over 100 Medical, Pharmacy, Laboratory Science and B.Sc Nursing students that have reached their clinical years in training. Government has already employed them and is paying them salaries. This policy is serving to increase the Health workforce.
There are 20 health professionals (Medical doctors and medical laboratory scientists) undergoing post-graduate training in various specialities.
4. Partnerships for Health
Government created the enabling environment through its policies and reforms for Development partners working to support the effort of government in the provision of Healthcare services to the people of Kaduna State.
Capitalization of 295 Health Facilities in the state and drugs and medical supplies worth N1.2 billion is ongoing.
Commissioning of special chest clinic in General Hospital, Kafanchan to increase acewss to care and to address the problem of multiple drugs resistant tuberculosis
Arts & Culture
Kaduna State has a rich cultural heritage in terms of festivals, music, dance, drama, craft and even administration. It has 32 autonomous traditional institutions in the form of Emirate councils mostly in the northern part and chiefdoms, in the southern part. The people of Kaduna State are highly religious, the major religions in the State are Islam and Christianity, with Islam predominantly practiced in northern part and Christianity in the southern part.
Traditional religion is still practiced in some areas within the State side by side, the two orthodox religions. Culturally, Kaduna State is the home of the internationally acclaimed NOK culture in NOK village in Jaba Local Government of the State. This is where the NOK Terracotta head was discovered dating as far back as 500BC.
Cultural activities include: The Eid-El-Fitr and Eid-El- Kabir Festivals, the Tuk Ham, the Afan the Christmas and Easter Celebrations as well as the Kallan-Kowa celebrations.
Major Festivals in Kaduna State
a. KADUNA STATE FESTIVAL OF ARTS AND CULTURE
This is an annual festival organized by Kaduna State Ministry of Culture and Tourism. It is a forum where all the 23 Local Government in the State, and private cultural organizations, show case their culture, expose talent, and through these, promote unity and encourage tourism in the state. It takes place in November/December of every year.
b. Eid El Fitr and EID-EL-ADHA CELEBRATIONS
This is scheduled on the 1st of shawwal and the 10th of Dhul-Hajj respectively according to Islamic Calendar for 3 days. Usually Muslims all over the world celebrate the end of the Ramadan fasting period and the conclusion of he Hajj (Pilgrimage) rites. Most of the Emirates in Kaduna State and other parts of the northern part of the country celebrate it with a colourful Mini Durbar.
c. CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS
This takes place every December 25th/26th to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ by Christians all over the world.
d. EASTER CELEBRATIONS
It takes place April/May of every year to commemorate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ by all Christians.
e. TUK-HAM FESTIVAL
This was originally a thanks giving festival for ham people which lasts for 2 days. It is now a forum where all sons and daughter of Ham come together annually, for colourful display of the rich culture of the people in Jaba Local Government area.
f. AFAN CULTURAL FESTIVAL
This is celebrated every 1st of January, Kagoro. It has assumed an international standard with the sons and daughters of Aegworok land coming together to discuss issues that need their attention and to display their rich cultural heritage.
g. KALANKUWA CULTURAL FESTIVAL
This is purely a cultural festival that is celebrated in the northern part of the state. It is a kind of thanks giving festival celebrated after the harvest season (Nov/Dec.). it entails young men and women coming together, in a peaceful and friendly atmosphere, to entertain themselves. It is celebrated in Bomo Village, Samara, in Sabon Gari Local Government Area of the State.
h. Other Cultural Festivals
Other similar but less pronounced are the Tuk-Gwong, the Baranzan (Bajju), the Bakulu (Ikulu), the Anglian (Kamantan), the Adara (Kadara). The Aninkon (Kaninko) the Moroa, the Ninzo, the Kataf and th Attakad. Most of them take place at the beginning of the year in January with a few at the end of the year.
Traditional Institutions
The State has 32 traditional council comprising of Emirate and Chiefdoms which include: Zazzau Emirate, Birnin Gwari Emirate, Jema'a Emirate, Atyap Cheifdom, Bajju Chiefdom, Ikulu Chiefdom, Aghan Chiefdom, Gbagyi Chiefdom, Adara Chiefdom, Kajuru Chiefdom, Piriga Chiefdom, Kagarko Chiefdom, Jere Chiefdom, Koro Chiefdom, Maro'a Chiefdom, Atakar Chiefdom, Kagoro Cheifdom, Godo-Godo Chiefdom, Gwong Chiefdom, Kaninkon Chiefdom, Fantswam Chiefdom, Jaba Chiefdom, Nyanfan Chiefdom, Numana Chiefdom, Ninzo Chiefdom, Ayu Chiefdom, Kauru Chiefdom, Tsam Chiefdom, Kumana Chiefdom, Lere Chiefdom, saminaka Chiefdom, Kurama Chiefdom.
Relevant information on the composition and status of the Emirates and Traditional Councils in the State confirms that, at the moment, there are thirty-two (32) Emirates and Cheifdoms in the State which are classified into there (3) categories in terms of status as follows:
(a) 1st Class status: This is made up of ten (10) Emirates and Chiefdoms comprising of Zazzau, Kagoro, Jema'a Birnin Gwari, Moro'a, Jaba, Atyap, Bajju, Gwong and Adara.
(b) 2nd Class Status: Consists of nine (9) Emirates and Chiefdoms, comprising Numana, Kauru, Kajuru, Kagarko, Koro, Gbagyi, Lere, Jere, Ninzo.
(c) 3rd Class status: This category has thirteen (13) Chiefdoms comprising of Saminaka, Kurama, Kumana, Piriga, Tsam, Anghan, Ikulu, Fanstwan, Kaninkon, Godogodo, Ayu, Takad and Nyenkpa.
The basis of the classification of the status of Emirates and Chiefdoms is based on population, land mass, historical antecedents or all. There are 32 paramount traditional rulers and in each emirate or chiefdom, there are council members, king makers, ruling houses and succession pattern while some are on merit, others are rotational. Below is the summary of the classification:-
Kaduna State is richly endowed with abundant tourism resources. To further boost attractions, the hospitality of the people keeps beckoning visitors. Past tourist attractions in the State includes:, Arewa House-the official residence of the late premier of the Northern region Sir Ahmadu Bello the Sarduana of Sokoto, Northern Nigeria Development Company (NNDC) building, along Ahmadu Bello Way, the famous Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Zaria city walls and gates, the Emir's palace's central Mosques built by Muhammadu Durugu, St. Bartholowmew's Church in Wusasa Zaria, Nok settlement where the first and biggest terracotta was discovered and dated back to 500BC located in Jaba Local Government Area, chains of Kagoro hills, the famous Queen Amina site in Turunku, Matsirga water falls, the Kajim water spring in Manchock, Gburuku, water stream in Kagarko, Katagwan foot print, grave and abode in Kagoro Gurara water falls and Dam, Lugard foot bridge at General Hassan Usman Katsina Park, the swimming pool also located at the General Hassan Katsina park where the West African Frontier Force (WAFF) were trained, the Emir of Zauzau's palace and Lugard Hall presently used as the States' Assembly Complex among others.
Its diverse people's customs and tradition as well as the peoples hospitality makes Kaduna State one of the best tourist attractions in Nigeria. Its strategic location in the heartland of Nigeria also makes it accessible by air, road and rail from any part of the country to take care of all categories of visitors in the State. The State, espacially major cities (Kaduna, Zaria) has private hotels such as Hamdala, Crystal Garden, Asaa Pyramid Hotel, Adriel Hotel, Aso Motel, Crocodile Hotel, Zaria Hotel, etc. The Government Hotels/motels are in all parts of the state.
All these Hotels/Motels serve all dishes that meet the needs of all classes of Tourist to the State with Traditional dishes/Snacks that don't fail to entice all visitors.


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Nel presents State's argument theoryComment on this story
Pretoria - Circumstantial evidence points to an argument between murder-accused Oscar Pistorius and his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp before he shot her dead, the High Court in Pretoria heard on Thursday.
"The only reasonable inference from circumstantial evidence is that there was an argument," said prosecutor Gerrie Nel.
After an objection from Pistorius's counsel Barry Roux, Nel said this evidence included testimony from witnesses who said they heard a woman screaming in the early hours of February 14 last year, when Steenkamp was shot dead in Pistorius's toilet.
Pistorius had been alleging that the scene at his house had been altered and that a fan was moved.
Nel suddenly said: "It was moved when you and the deceased got in an argument," prompting Roux's objection.
Nel said his case would say "when you got up you had an argument. That's why she ran away screaming".
Nel said this was the only "reasonable inference".
Pistorius has pleaded not guilty to the charge of murder he faces. He said he thought there was an intruder about to enter his home when he suddenly fired four shots at the toilet door, killing Steenkamp inside the toilet with three of the shots.
He has also denied guilt on a charge of illegal possession of ammunition and two counts of discharging a firearm in public.
Click here for IOL's live blog about the Oscar trial.
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Title: The National Geographic: Tits and Ass - Author: Mike Marino
Published: Mar 3, 2014 - Contact:
Coming of age in the jet age, our male hormones were being fuel injected with the power of a red lining nitro fueled engine taking on the Bonneville Salt Flat going for the erection record! Everwhere all around us we were surrounded by the phallic symbols of the space age that included everything from the sleek sexy cylindrical shaped rocket nosecone with boosters poised to launch and penetrate and rape the vaginal void of outer space blasting high into the hymen heavens above. On terra firma there were the sexy protruding "dagmar tits" shaped like a pair of firm breasts tha could belong to the actress Dagmar herself now neatly welded onto the front grill of the family Oldsmobile. All these symbols of mechanical sexuality held out the promiscuous promise of sexual gratification to help aleviate the budding bulge in our jeans and increase our curiousity factor concerning the natural state of nudity.
First it was dads hidden secret stash of Playboy magazines, as they were our holy grail of flesh, at the time, airbrushed white buxom beauties with centerfold breasts that defied imagine. Furry delta's that were pristine and clean as the old fishing hole on a sunny day, and perfectly round mounds of bottoms up, poised and spread, ready for exploration and a good spelunking. We were horny for hymens. Instead we had to settle for drooling over our best friends mom (I will refrain from using her name to protect her not so innocence!) in her summer see through dress, causing delayed mastabutory activity laer on under the sheets in the privacy of our rooms, and jack off conversations about her with the rest of the gang who also wanted nothing more than to breast feed from her and be "mothered" and smothered by her. Of course your "best friend" never understood why you wanted to hang around his house so much instead of going to the railroad tracks to watch the trains flatten pennies you put on the rails. We were all Eddie Haskells at heart and we loved her beaver! You might say, and you will probably, that it was sort of a transposed Oedipal transference inference and interference. You never talked about the mom to your best friend, whose mom she was or you could get a punch landed smack in the middle of your grinning face. I still remember when breaking each others chops when you would jokingly say something clever like, "Hey, I got some nude pictures of your mom, wanna buy some" Damn you only wished you really had them...you wouldn't sell them but trade them for other kids moms photos...like naked moms trading cards!
We had other coming of age tools of drool in the form of publications with gardens of flesh heretofore unknown. For instance, the jackoff bible book of Genital Genesis has to be the JC Penney Catalogue with the magic "L" section with a playground of lingerie photos from panties to bra's and nightwear. Women personified as perfection dressed in lace and frills to tittilate the senses of a young boy. Sears had a lingerie section too but the catalogue was more in tune with the male of the species and offered more lawnmowers and weed whackers then lingerie and sexy models to whack off to. We gave the catalogues Whack Off Standings, much as you do in college sports, and JC Penney was the odds on hands on favorite to score a pubescent touchdown under the covers in the dark of night alone in your room with only the dim glow of the nightlight to enhance the solo mood of self gratification.
Then...it happened...the sexual seas parted...water was turned into sexual wine...and you became Adam and a world of tribal Eves opened wide their gate to the garden of delights..it was the the opening of the Garden of Hedon and a world of Tribal Tits and Tribal Ass beckoned as you saw our first copy of National Geographic. Nat Geo we call her. Now for the first time you saw giant nipples, round breasts and tufts of pubic hair moist and shiny all framed on the statuesque dark bodies of African and South American nude females in some hidden village in the bush. Sleek brown skin, exotic and enticing with round bottoms ready for exploration and tits to examine at will and a furry delta to launch your canoe into and go slowly up her stream...Nat Geo...our first encounter of the tribal kind...we wondered...so this is what our best friends mom looks like "down under" her underwear. Those JC Penney models are alright..but damn..these tribal girls are worth two in the bush...and you wanted to get two of them in their bush! Dr. Livingston I presume These photos were better then Maureen O'Sullivan in a slit skirt in Tarzan films.
What could pass for anthropological photographic geographic pornography began as a private club for the wealthy and a few academics, scientists and explorers whose main interest was in travel. Bear in mind this was in 1883 and not the age where you loaded up the family car and headed for Knotts Berry Farm. This was the Victorian age of travel...exotic safaris to far off places that are mere specks on the maps. They called themselves the National Geographic Society. One of the early presidents of the Society was Alexander Graham Bell, yes, the father of Ma Bell. It was his idea to come out with a publication that would in addition to words use drawings, maps and photos to tell the travel tales to give the piece a somewhat three dimensional look.
The first issue came out of the Society's womb from it's headquaters in Washington, DC in 1888, just nine months after the society was founded! From then it had begun to make it's iconic look a mainstay of the publishing world with it's yellow rectangular border, later dramatic photos were included to enhance the attractive look and today. Photography was in it's teen years at the time but over the years the magazine has secured it's place as the place to place your photos for the sheer prestige of having bragging rights to the coveted cover spot. The first "photographic layout" was in January of 1905 where full page photos of Tibet were included moving the publication from a position as merely an academic study in words to a multi-platform of visual art that depicted corners of the world that were still mysterious and fascinated the public at large. Most of the photos at the time were the kind you see and are reminiscent of Matthew Brady...huge tripod affairs with glass plates, but by the early part of the 20th Century color photography was making itself visible though still a rarity but by the 1930's one of their staff photogs, Luis Marden convinced the magazine to allow photographers to use the newer smaller compact 35mm cameras and as a bonus..Kodachrome film for brilliant colors that made the magazine pages come to life as never before.
So when did all this "tribal nudity" begin Some of earliest breasts preserved photographically and display graphically in a National Geographically expressed way was in the Victorian Era year of 1896. Since then the fascination with the breasts and nipples of black and brown tribal women has been an obsession with Nat Geo-ites and their readers, and yes, I can appreciate and am fond of those exotic and magnificent breasts and nipples myself and in real life my own penchant and history of fondling these exotic "tribal" breasts is due to various personal sexual relationships that brought me into close proximity to them. Mounds of brown are world reknowned! I can trace the roots of my fascination directly to ...NAT GEO!
Then of course while the western world enjoys a good gander at the "n" words, that is Nudity and Nipples, whereas the more conservative Muslim countries tend to frown on those two visible items mounted on a chest looking like big game heads mounted on a sportsmans wall. To protect the public from anything pubic, they will actually have them blacked them out! Yes, there is some protest and there are reports that some muslim readers complain although not too loudly or openly mind you about this practice and how obsucring a good boob shot decreases the "artistic merits" of the magazine! Remember in some of these countries a thief can have his hand chopped off, imagine what damage to the male extremity might occur should there be a Nat Geo induced erection rising to the ocassion!
Anthropologically it is curious that the Nat Geo seems fixated on "tribal nudity" where it is considered art and not porn if the bare breasts and penis presentations are of those of brown skinned people. Granted, they are delightfully delicious looking and to the truly sheltered in the world they are delicious in reality as well. You see very little "white" nudity in the magazines, which is the yin to the yang of the history of published nudity...in regular skin mags..it was always voluptuous white babes baring all and black women had a boob barrier of acceptibility to break on through to the other side...in Nat Geo..it's the reverse...it's mainly Black females and not white that we can gaze in wonder at. Go figure...so in effect is Nat Geo ahead of the racial curve, or is it something more sinister as the exploitation of "tribal races" considered more as something on display in Nat Geos idea of a human tribal zoo where the displayed human animals are just that...animals and not human beings in the eyes of the publisher
There were human zoos in parts of the world in the 1800's where Latina, Native American, Negro and Arab women were displayed in traveling human zoos in Europe where the visitors would plunk down a few pences or pfennigs to see caged naked tribal women and some men on display. This practice extended to the early part of the 20th Century, coinciding coincidentally with the beginning of publication of the National Geographic Society's magazine! Remember too this was also a practice at the tail end of slavery that proliferated in the United States until 1865 where African females and males were auctioned off nude for white buyers and examined on the block as though they were animals and not human beings. This all being said...the white perception of tribal people is just that...they were conditioned to look at them as sub-humans and more animal in nature and nudity a natural state for them. Nat Geo merely was susceptible to the same cancerous thinking and of course that was reflected in their depiction of tribal culture. While most of the shots in the formative years were of tribal women going about their business, this all morphed as the 20th Century progressed, and the proliferation of magazines like Playboy and Hustler were flying off the shelf. As the disco ball sun rose on the golden age of polyester in the the bellbottom 1970's the photos of naked tribal tits and ass became more frequent and the use of more teenage girls in posed shots jsut shy of the training bra stage was common practice. Naked teens from Yap Island to Tahiti were replacing the pin-up girl calendars in auto shops across America. Pubic hair displays also became more popular through public pubic acceptance, as long as they were shown on people of color. You could say a streak of mammarial racism was running rampant through the publishing jungle Many explanations have been given, how much clear water creedence we should give them is still up for the great masturbate debate. Jacking off to photos of jungle women is an old American male pastime. One school of thought is that the Nat Geo group felt black and brown women were not desirable enough so the photos couldn't possibly be considered pornography, but mere science for antropology's sake...no apology for anthropology. The yang side of the unspoken yin then was that white women were regarded not as subhuman animal types but rather the ideal of womanhood and therefore shown in the context of Nat Geo they were not "anthropologically viable"
Either way, whether it's the underwear section of a JC Penney catalogue or naked teenage tribal girls and full grown women in Africa or Yap Island...lets face it...Nat Geo has been there in the foreground of photographic pornographic masturbatory foreplay around the world. So drop your drawers gentlemen, grab it in hand, and whack off to Nat Geo's Mass of Tribal Tits and Ass! It's the anthropological thing to do.


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Eileen Philbin
Executive Director, American Senior Benefits Association
ASBA Helping Seniors Find Answers to Tax Questions
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Chicago, IL - November 8, 2011 - The American Senior Benefits Association (ASBA), is keenly aware that most seniors are closely watching their pennies these days - and that means seeking a better understanding of their tax situation. Today, ASBA announced a new benefit now being offered through its continuing partnership with Tax Rite, Inc. Tax Hotline is the new service that can answer any tax question a senior may have, at any time during the year.
Tax Hotline can answer questions about long-term tax planning and recent tax law changes. Seniors can benefit from a free review of their most recent tax return, discounted yearly tax return preparation, and research on complex tax issues. Tax Hotline representatives can also give advice on IRS audits and quick tax tips.
While seniors can contact the IRS directly for tax assistance, the IRS Answer Line receives nearly 118 million calls every year. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, 41% of those calls go unanswered and 10% are answered incorrectly. Hiring a CPA is often a cost-prohibitive option.
Tax Hotline representatives provide confidential, expert-level tax assistance at a low cost. Tax Hotline employees are full-time tax professionals, rather than seasonal employees. Representatives are based in the U.S., but can offer tax advice in 140 languages with the use of an interpreter.
"We know that getting timely tax advice is important to seniors, and that's exactly what ASBA members will receive with Tax Hotline," according to Jason Stutzman, Vice President of Sales/Marketing for Tax Rite, Inc. "While most tax franchises are closed from May until January, we can answer seniors' questions all year long. We're very pleased to offer our services to ASBA members."
Bill Hill, Sr., President and Chairman of the Board of ASBA, agreed. "Seniors now have a place to go with the tax questions that so often come up during the year: Questions about tax planning, financial planning and general financial education. We think Tax Hotline will be a benefit that our members access regularly."
For more information on Tax Hotline, please visit www.asbaonline.org or https://www.taxhotline.net/absa.aspx?an=asba.
Tax Rite, Inc., the company that powers the Tax Hotline program is a benefit provider and privately held company formed in 1995. Tax Rite, Inc. currently has over 1 million active members within its programs, has an A+ Rating with the Better Business Bureau, and is enrolled with Dun & Bradstreet Reports.
The American Senior Benefits Association (ASBA) is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit association where membership is completely free. ASBA is committed to lifestyle enhancement through benefits, advocacy and education for the over-50 population. ASBA concentrates its efforts on the issues that are of greatest concern to its members. Through its partners and programs, ASBA members receive news and information, product and service discounts, as well as other benefits. Current ASBA membership stands at over 739,000 nationally.


text:
Why should I become a member?
Over the past years, the Society's membership has grown by more than 50%.
- GOC is the only national specialty society solely devoted to issues of gynecologic cancer
- GOC meetings provide a forum for us to come together and exchange research and clinical ideas
- GOC provides a forum for launching health advocacy issues both nationally and provincially
- Membership provides access to the members only section of the GOC website
- GOC provides a platform to interact and influence international societies such as IGCS
- GOC is a national specialty society directly responsible for sub-specialty training and fellowship CPD activity
- Social and fun activities
- You will receive The GOC News, our quarterly newsletter
- You will have access to the "Member's" section of the website, where there will reside a discussion board, providing members to post cases of the week for discussion and input from colleagues
How can I contribute to the Society?
Members are encouraged to be active, take leadership roles and assist GOC in promoting excellence in gynecologic oncology health care. This can be done through participation on one of the Society"s committees or through contributing to the website or newsletter. You may also contact any one of our officers at any time to offer suggestions.
What meetings does GOC hold?
GOC currently holds 2 meetings annually. These are the Annual General Meeting which is held concurrently with the SOGC Annual Clinical Meeting, the Continuing Professional Development meeting which is held concurrently with the NCIC spring meeting.
How can I find out more?
You can find out more about GOC by contacting our National Coordinator, Hélène Soublière at 1.800.561.2416 or at 613.730.4192 extension 250. You may also e-mail us at firstname.lastname@example.com or contact one of our officers.
How can I become a member?
Simply fill out and sign the application form and mail it with your curriculum vitae to our secretariat at 780 Echo Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 5R7.
New membership applications are voted on by the membership during the annual meeting in June.


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The Iron Horse Grill is shown under construction on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013.
- Filed Under
The reincarnation of Jackson landmark The Iron Horse Grill is scheduled to open around Thanksgiving, its lead developer said.
Joseph Simpson, of The Simpson Group, said contractors should wrap up work at the West Pearl Street building on Nov. 13. After two weeks of staff training, the Tex-Mex restaurant that will double as a live music venue should be ready to open.
"By then we'll have ...


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North and South Korea at brink of war?
1 post • Page 1 of 1
Sat Oct 18, 2008 4:18am EDT
N.Korean diplomats await "important message": report
TOKYO (Reuters) - North Korean diplomats have been told to stick close to their embassies and await "an important message," Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported on Saturday.
Multiple unidentified sources "connected with the issue" said the order appeared to have been conveyed to the diplomats within the past several days, the paper added.
The sources gave no further details but said the message could deal with relations between the two Koreas or the health of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
Kim's health has been the subject of speculation after U.S. and South Korean officials said he may have suffered a stroke in August.
South Korea's National Intelligence Service said it was checking the report.
On Thursday, North Korea threatened to end all relations with South Korea, a major source of aid and cash, in anger at the hardline policies of its conservative president.
Pyongyang's threat to cut ties with the South came days after it pledged to resume taking apart a nuclear plant that makes bomb-grade plutonium.
Its decision to return to a disarmament deal followed Washington's move to take the reclusive state off its terrorism blacklist, removing some trade sanctions.
The North has been angry at South Korean President Lee Myung-bak since he took office in February and pledged to cut off what once had been largely unconditional aid.
Analysts said the North, which often employs pressure tactics, may be moving now because it feels it has gained leverage through the nuclear agreement.
A sharp increase in tension between the two Koreas could cause problems for the South by increasing its perceived political risk and making it more expensive for its companies to raise funds internationally at a time when the economy is already wobbling from the impact of global financial turmoil.
The nuclear compromise and the threats to Seoul come as questions have been raised over how decisions are now being made in the North after U.S. and South Korean officials raised fears about Kim's health.
Kim's health and his whereabouts are the among the North's most tightly guarded secrets.
Known at home as the "Dear Leader," Kim has failed to appear at a number of the high-profile ceremonies in recent months.
State media last week moved to dispel rumors he was gravely ill, reporting he had attended a soccer match, and broadcasting pictures of him inspecting a women's military unit. South Korean media said the pictures may have been several months old.
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNew ... dChannel=0
U.S. Pledges Prompt Military Aid to S. Korea
After the 40th Security Consultative Meeting in Washington yesterday, the defense chiefs of South Korea and the United States issued a joint statement containing a U.S. pledge to promptly dispatch forces to the Korean Peninsula in case of war.
The two sides also agreed to have U.S. troops transfer 49 percent of their war reserves stockpile for allies to Korean forces.
The joint statement by Defense Minister Rhee Sang-hee and U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says that Washington will promptly offer an appropriate level of reinforcement in the event of emergency on the Korean Peninsula.
This is the first time that the meeting's joint statement pledges quick reinforcement deployment by U.S. forces. A similar promise, however, was made in a mutual defense treaty.
"The U.S. made it clear that its security assurances on the Korean Peninsula remain intact regardless of the transfer of wartime operational control to Korean forces in April 2012," a Defense Ministry official said. "The U.S. will provide sufficient military reinforcement (in case of war) to Korea. The size of reinforcement stated in the existing bilateral agreement will hardly change."
Washington promised to send 690,000 troops, 160 warships and 2,000 airplanes under the existing agreement. Rhee and Gates also reportedly had in-depth discussions on military measures in response to various contingencies on the peninsula, such as North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's transfer of power due to poor health.
The positive outcome of the bilateral defense talks could help resume the development of the joint combined war scenario, code-named OPLAN 5027, which was disbanded by the previous Roh Moo-hyun administration.
http://english.donga.com/srv/service.ph ... 8101844358
Friday, October 17, 2008
Japan concerned over Chinese submarines near maritime borders
TOKYO, October 17 (RIA Novosti) - Chinese submarines have recently increased their activity near Japan's maritime borders in the East China Sea, a Japanese military source said on Friday.
According to the source, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force detected the presence of a Chinese Han-class nuclear-powered submarine and a Song-class diesel attack submarine in the region as the U.S. George Washington nuclear aircraft carrier was heading to the South Korean port of Pusan on a friendly visit.
The USS George Washington is stationed at a U.S. naval base in Yokosuka, Japan.
The source said the Chinese submarines did not violate Japanese territorial waters, but described their activities as attempts "to gather data on noise signatures emitted by all automated systems of the U.S. aircraft carrier" and "some sort of intimidation."
In response to the Chinese moves, Tokyo and Washington increased the number of patrol flights by Japan's P-3C Orion ASW aircraft and deployed additional U.S. reconnaissance satellite assets to monitor the area.
The Chinese Navy's submarine fleet includes at least two nuclear-powered attack submarines, and its 13 Song-class submarines are extremely quiet and difficult to detect when running on electric motors.
In October 2006, an undetected Chinese Song-class submarine popped up in the middle of a U.S. task force during an exercise in the Pacific at the distance of only 5 miles from the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier.
The Chinese vessel slipped past at least a dozen other American warships which were supposed to protect the carrier from hostile aircraft or submarines.
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Cleanup conducted on Terrapin Creek
Published: Friday, September 28, 2012 at 6:11 p.m.
Last Modified: Friday, September 28, 2012 at 6:11 p.m.
Paddlers on Terrapin Creek will find the creek a little clearer after two days of cleanup this week.
The Cherokee County Sheriff's Office conducted a cleanup effort Wednesday and Thursday on Terrapin Creek, Sheriff Jeff Shaver said.
Sheriff's office personnel, volunteers and inmates from the Cherokee County Detention Center removed a large quantity of debris and refuse, including a large trailer load of tires, from the creek, Shaver said.
"The weather was perfect, and the cleanup effort was a huge success," he said. "Several of our volunteers got a close-up view of the cold waters of the creek when they learned about the dynamics of canoeing."
Shaver said the cleanup was made possible by the help of Mr. and Mrs. Steve Warren, owners of the Terrapin Outdoor Center, who allowed the sheriff's office to use their property and boats to complete the effort.
Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged.


text:
November 27, 2015
Charleston, W.Va. (AP) -- The West Virginia Music Hall of Fame needs help covering the cost of its third induction ceremony, so it's planning a concert to raise funds.
The Aug. 1 show at the Cultural Center Theater in Charleston will include Grammy winner and Wheeling native Tim O'Brien, the Songcatchers, the Carpenter Ants, Hall of Fame member Everett Lilly and Mountain Stage host Larry Groce.
One performer to be inducted Nov. 21, blues singer Nat Reese, will also perform.
Tickets are $50.
(Copyright 2009 by the Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
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Otto of St. Blasien
Chronicler, b. about the middle of the twelfth century; d. 23 July, 1223, at St. Blasien in the Black Forest, Baden
Otto of St. Blasien, chronicler, b. about the middle of the twelfth century; d. 23 July, 1223, at St. Blasien in the Black Forest, Baden. Nothing is known of the events of his life. It is probable that in his later days he became abbot of the renowned Benedictine monastery of St. Blasien. He is known as the writer who continued the chronicles of Otto of Freising, like whom he possessed a great talent for presenting a clear survey of events. His language was lofty, and followed the model of the ancient classics. Like many of his contemporaries, he liked to apply the fixed formulas of Justinian to the German emperors, probably on the assumption, then widespread, that the Holy Roman Empire was only the continuation of the Roman Empire of the Caesars. His chronicles, written in the form of annals, "Ad librum VII chronici Ottonis Frisingensis episcopi continuatae historiae appendix sive Continuatio Sanblasiana", embrace the period from 1146 to 1209, that is, the period from Conrad III to the murder of Philip of Swabia. Since he was distant in time from the facts he narrates, his accounts are wholly objective, even though he makes no concealment of his prejudice in favor of the Hohenstaufen, who in 1218 received the bailiwick of St. Blasien from the dukes of Zähringen. Yet, after Otto IV of Wittelsbach was recognized as German emperor, he writes of him in the same objective way as of his predecessors. Nevertheless, without any apparent cause, the narrative breaks off at the coronation of Otto IV. Perhaps the chronicler shrank from describing the bloody party conflicts of the times. His chief sources were the "Gesta Friderici" and perhaps Alsatian chronicles. On the whole his statements may be trusted. It is only when he has to resort to oral reports that he becomes unreliable; this is especially the case in his chronology, though he is not to be reproached with intentional misrepresentation of facts for this reason. His chronicles were published by R. Wilmans in "Mon. Germ. Hist.: Script." (XX, pp. 304-34); they were translated into German by Horst Kohl in "Geschichtschreiber der deutschen Vorzeit" (12 century, vol. VIII, Leipzig, 1881, 2nd ed., 1894).


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Piracy for Game Development is Outrageously High
39 Replies - 5974 Views - Last Post: 09 December 2013 - 05:39 PM
Re: Piracy for Game Development is Outrageously High
Posted 15 October 2013 - 08:57 AM
MatLab is starting itself off on the back foot as far as I'm concerned - they'd better be pretty special to justify all that rigamarole.
Re: Piracy for Game Development is Outrageously High
Posted 15 October 2013 - 09:07 AM
Re: Piracy for Game Development is Outrageously High
Posted 23 October 2013 - 07:01 AM
Have any of you heard of Game Dev Tycoon? It's where you are a game dev, trying to make games. Going from working in your basement in the Atari ere, all the way to making your own console in the post xbox360 era.
The game developers released a cracked copy of the game with a twist.
In the cracked copy your company is plagued with piracy, losing you money until the game becomes unwinnable (i.e. you go bankrupt).
it's an innovative way of them putting their point across.
EuroGamer aritcle
EDIT: I should mention that the cracked copy they released was done so secretly. meaning people just thought someone had cracked it, rather then it being a deliberate ploy
This post has been edited by belgarion262: 23 October 2013 - 07:02 AM
Re: Piracy for Game Development is Outrageously High
Posted 23 October 2013 - 07:34 AM
It seems like IOS and consoles are the only somewhat safe havens for indie developers these days.
Re: Piracy for Game Development is Outrageously High
Posted 23 October 2013 - 08:13 AM
belgarion262, on 23 October 2013 - 10:01 AM, said:
Put another way: I believe that beating children with stove pipes will lead to a utopian society. I write a novel where people behave as I say they should and everything comes out the way I say it should. It proves... creative writing? For some reason, I'm thinking of Walden Two now...
Re: Piracy for Game Development is Outrageously High
Posted 23 October 2013 - 08:59 AM
I think it may be worth considering a world in which the crackers have won. Just pretend to yourself that there is no point in trying to prevent someone from copying a game. Are there still business models? Of course there are.
To start with, there are probably some models to draw on in the history of literature. Think of serials - a company could develop a game, and if there's demand, they could continue. If there's nobody buying, they don't develop any more. With Kickstarter, this actually becomes pretty viable: the different levels of contribution give people opportunities to influence the plot, to get their name or picture into the game, or maybe buy an enhanced game experience. Under the kickstarter scenario, you could actually make each "chapter" of the game free, since you'd have the development costs paid for out front.
There's the public-radio model, where people get some symbolic totem to carry around for paying to support a public good. You could have a special T-shirt made that costs, say $60, and the only way to get it is to buy it from the game company. People who play the game would know that this is a person who supports their entertainment - if they respect this, then you've just managed to sell real-world rep points. (I'm not sure tote bags would go over real well, but you could try)
Extending that idea, you could even talk companies into "sponsoring" the game. The hipper-than-you startup culture (so pathetic, but maybe useful, since it makes people so easily manipulated) suggests that you could easily make something like this happen, if you found companies that make things gamers want. (Hah. Like there's any of those. Like gamers are a market that any company would want to tap into... as if! Oh, wait. Yeah, that could work)
Or, you could provide a "I made your fun happen" badge that people could use to decorate their on-line personae. Sort of like the progress badges that the euler project provides.
If you don't like those, there are others. There's no shortage of ways to get money from people, and making them pay at the gate is just one of them. If people have figured out a way to get around the gate, you can still sell them T-shirts and hot dogs.
I remember the day when a guy came into my coffee shop with a DVD - "Dude, I've got everything Tom Waits has ever recorded, right here! And I got it free, from the internet!" I was horrified - being a musician, that meant basically my model of making a living had just been shot in the head. I spent a lot of time railing against the music pirates - well, technology more or less happened, and my side lost. And as it turned out, not much changed. Once upon a time, bands would play shows so they could maybe get discovered and make records. Then the nineties happened, and now bands make records so they can get discovered and play shows. Six of one, half a dozen of the other. Bands still play. People will still make games. Some studios will make the wrong choices and go under, some new ones will fill those niches. Apocalypse not yet.
This post has been edited by jon.kiparsky: 23 October 2013 - 09:02 AM
Re: Piracy for Game Development is Outrageously High
Posted 23 October 2013 - 12:13 PM
This game, like many others, is "free to play." The income stream comes from extras that can be purchased in game. You never have to buy a thing, but if you play a lot, you might. I've thrown some cash at them over the years.
A quick look at current the gaming success stories shows this model is thriving. Variations of this are fundamentally pirate proof and these are the guys who will survive.
Re: Piracy for Game Development is Outrageously High
Posted 23 October 2013 - 12:31 PM
Re: Piracy for Game Development is Outrageously High
Posted 09 December 2013 - 01:43 PM
farrell2k, on 12 October 2013 - 04:29 AM, said:
In the end, there is not much you can really do, if you plan to sell the product outright. Of course that's not the only way to monetize software. You could do something web based, or even monetize it via in-app purchases, which is what I would do.
I don't think the makers of MineCraft have man problems with piracy.
What still? I thought it was established that Steam defeats a large amount of piracy. It'd be interesting to see if the game did well...Although perhaps no World of Goo 2 might answer the question. I'd settle for 50% but 90% is a little high with a medium like Steam which basically hands the games over for free.
Re: Piracy for Game Development is Outrageously High
Posted 09 December 2013 - 05:39 PM
But what I was gonna bring up.
Game Dev Tycoon. When it first came across my radar I dismissed it thinking, "a game about making games, how...meh. Why don't I just make a game? This is like guitar hero for nerds." Then I read about their anti-piracy measure. Prior to releasing the game, they intentionally flooded the internet with torrents of a copy which contained one key difference: it cannot be beaten. It was actually someone here who told me of this, but I forget who - modi maybe? Some time into the game, you start losing sales to piracy. While there is an event in the real game where you get pirated, it isn't something that breaks your company (and depending on how you react you get more fans). In the leaked copy, piracy gets so bad you literally cannot survive. So when you see people posting on forums "guys how do I deal with pirates I can't sell my games" you know that they're using a pirated copy.
I thought that was clever as fuck. When I read about it I turned around and bought the game for no reason other than I thought that a trick that cool deserved my dollar. It turns out though that I also really enjoyed the game, so double win!


text:
November 29, 2015
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - South Korea's foreign minister says North Korea's track record should be enough to keep U.N. sanctions in place even if Pyongyang returns to nuclear disarmament talks.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il said Monday that his government is willing to rejoin the six-nation nuclear talks depending on progress in negotiations with the United States.
South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan today noted the North's history of reaching disarmament pacts and then backtracking after receiving aid and concessions.
The U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions to punish the North for its second nuclear test.
An earlier resolution, adopted after Pyongyang's first atomic test in 2006, was never enforced in earnest after Pyongyang agreed to disarmament talks, from which it later withdrew.
Yu said the same mistake should not be repeated.
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Why has Indian mythology given forms to all energies. Are all the mythological stories true?
How can Rishis lose control and curse if they are enlightened?
The universe is full of names and forms. The moment you give a name, form also comes with it. And many of these forms were cognized in the subtle. So they continue in the subtle realm.
Now, why did the Rishis (Seers) get angry and curse, I don't know. Usually not every Rishi does this. There were only a couple of them who did this. But every time they cursed, something great happened from their curse as well. That is why it is said, the anger of the enlightened also, does something good for the society, whereas even the love of an ignorant person does some harm.
A wise man's anger also is beneficial. He cannot do any harm, he only does good to the society.
So every time a Rishi cursed, it turned out to be a very big boon to the population.


text:
Pullman, WA (Sports Network) - Mark Lyons scored 20 points, and eighth-ranked
Arizona topped Washington State, 79-65, to earn a rare road sweep of schools
from the Evergreen State.
Solomon Hill had 18 points, including an incredible shot from three-quarters
court at the end of the first half. Brandon Ashley and Kaleb Tarczewski both
scored 10 for the Wildcats (19-2, 7-2 Pac-12), who have won three in a row.
Arizona secured its first road sweep of the Washington schools for the first
time since the 2005-06 season. They were coming off a 57-53 victory over the
Huskies on Thursday.
Brock Motum and DaVonte Lacy each had 15 points for the Cougars (11-11, 2-7),
who have lost four of their last five contests. Royce Woolridge and D.J.
Shelton added 14 and 13 points, respectively. Shelton also had 10 rebounds.
The Sports Network


text:
Hi all..
I m not sure that's the proper name, I mean the vim equivalent of <++>.
You put that anywhere you want in your code, and you can jump there with some keybindings... something like $N, but not for snippets!
Users browsing this forum: Exabot [Bot] and 28 guests


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Finding the perfect gifts for friends and family every year can be a challenge, so we're here to make your holiday season a little easier. For the imbibers on your list you can shop easy with the help of our holiday gift guide in the Nov/Dec 2012 issue of the magazine, featuring 50 gift ideas suited to budgets of all kinds. But we couldn't stop there: Below are some extra suggestions, from bite-sized stocking stuffers to wine cellar-filling splurges. Whether you're shopping for a cocktail geek, coffee enthusiast or beer lover, our holiday gift guides have you covered, because sometimes even Santa needs a little help.
Vino & Fromage Wine Glasses
Add a splash of whimsy to your next wine party with these hand-etched, stemless glasses.
$52/set of 4, rosannainc.com
Wine Hive
Countertop wine storage becomes a work of art with this honeycomb-styled stacking wine rack made from recycled aluminum.
$65, tinylightbulbs.com
Le Creuset French Press
Famous French cookware company gets into the coffee business with this hefty enamel-coated French press.
$60, lecreuset.com
|Ken Wright Cellars "Savoya Vineyard" Pinot Noir 2008
The 2008 vintage set a new benchmark for Oregon Pinot Noir, and this offering from boutique vintner Ken Wright marks a shining example with dark fruit flavors, layers of earthy forest notes and a touch of baking spices on the finish.
$70, astorwines.com
|Avva Carafe
This mouth-blown hombre carafe seamlessly transitions from countertop to tabletop.
$85, teroforma.com
|Busnel Hors D'Age 12yr.
This world-class brandy is made from 40 different apple varieties and is twice-distilled, then aged 4 years. It's super-smooth and great for sipping.
$70, astorwines.com


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Peter Costello
THE NEWS WRAP: Rio Tinto dumps CEO amid $US14 billion of writedowns3:10AM | Friday, 15 March
Mining giant Rio Tinto has named Sam Walsh as its new chief executive following the shock resignation of former CEO Tom Albanese, after $US14 billion of writedowns at the company.
THE NEWS WRAP: Murdoch to "hit back" over sabotage allegations3:19PM | Thursday, 29 March
News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch has indicated he is preparing to "hit back" at what he describes as the "lies" directed towards his business.
Five reasons to start-up in 2012 – and five reasons to think twice3:51AM | Friday, 15 March
Figures released this week by the Australian Bureau of Statistics illustrate what many budding entrepreneurs have long suspected – conditions aren't all rosy for new businesses.


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6 Comments
I think that if Eleanor is the pregnant one, next season will be far more funny. As for Chair, it was time to finally end it, and they made it very classy. I wish they made a season in the summer, it's more interesting, I'm tired of the classical pattern of filming during the so called school/university time.
maybe that's why he dresses better
because he is...Chuck Bass?!


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Mary Pagones of West Long Branch found her 2003 Toyota RAV4 wasn't eligible to have its electronic control module repaired because it was first driven off the lot in December 2002, and thus ineligible for a class-action settlement.
- Filed Under
West Long Branch resident Mary Pagones missed the cutoff by less than a month.
She figured Toyota Motor Sales USA had her covered after her 2003 Toyota RAV4 broke down. After all, her car's model year was part of a settlement in a class-action lawsuit over a problem with the electronic control module.
A lawsuit claimed that some 2001 to 2003 model year RAV4s, which have automatic transmission, have experienced a "harsh shift condition." The problem, in which a vehicle may suddenly not shift smoothly, was attributed to the vehicle's electronic control module, which may also damage the car's ...


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News Archive
The Age
Thursday November 26, 2009
Small screen talk AT THE Screen Producers Association of Australia conference Warner Bros�� head of digital marketing, Stephanie Bohn, outlined the variety of ways distributors are getting content to the home, legally and for a fee. Various gaming consoles and video recorders are now downloading pay-per-view content to be watched on TV. Bohn also explained the release ��window�� between DVD and download (video on demand, or VOD) is disappearing, which is bad news for video stores. But cinema owners have reason to be fearful, too. Some distributors are releasing their fi lms via VOD at the same time as they are going into cinemas. Bohn said: ��There��s an opportunity for theatres in 3D, though it doesn��t apply to every title.��Supply and demand WITH a new film festival sprouting every other week, a new group has formed to help individuals and organisations to stage their event. Next Monday at the Loop Bar (6-8pm), Lisa Daniel (pictured) and Malcolm Turner, directors of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival and International Animation Festival respectively, and Fiona Kelly, marketing and sponsorship manager of the Melbourne International Film Festival, will share their nuts-and-bolts experiences of running a festival.The event is firstname.lastname@example.com Pitch money APPLICATIONS are now open for grants of up to $8000 to assist Victorian fi lmmakers in attracting overseas fi nanciers, broadcasters and distributors.The $250,000 fund is the fi rst program open for business under the new Victorian Screen Industry Strategy. The fund comes into being amid warnings that the fi nancing outlook for fi lms is ��pretty bleak��, to quote Screen Australia chief Dr Ruth Harley. The problem, says Screen Producers Association president Antony Ginnane, is the Federal Government��s tax offset isn��t working for fi lms, ��as it��s a fi nancial model created to fi t a landscape that has irrevocably changed in the last 18 months��.Next stop, oscar?THE Cat Piano, a short animation by the Adelaide-based People��s Republic of Animation, has made the shortlist for Oscar consideration. The fi lm noir-inspired animation, which features a beat poem narrated by Nick Cave (right), faces stiff competition. Among the 10 shortlisted fi lms are two by Pixar and a new Wallace & Gromit short, A Matter of Loaf and Death. The fi lm��s writer and co-director, Eddie White, is unperturbed. ��It marks a milestone for my studio . . .an indicator that we are on the right track and that there is an audience for what we are doing.��The Cat Piano has already won a swag of awards, and can be viewed on line at catpianofi lm.com PAUL KALINA Box Office AGAIN proving the boy-movie toppling power of the chick fl ick, the Twilight sequel New Moon set a new opening weekend record with $16.1 million across a 530- screen release and registering a crammed per-screen average of $30,377. This bumped 2012 to a distant second place, where it still managed $3.6 million across 405 screens. The Coen brothers comedy A Serious Man bowed at No. 8 with a solid $243,253 on 41 screens, while Amreeka debuted modestly at No. 20 with $24,992 on 11 screens. The Boys Are Back had a strong second weekend, taking $404,101 on 163 screens for a $1.2 million total, while Mao��s Last Dancer earned $269,983 across its eighth weekend for a tally of $14.4 million.JIM SCHEMBRI