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nathan's blog
Day One: The ArrivalSubmitted by nathan on Tue, 2011-05-17 21:21
Interesting/PainfulSubmitted by nathan on Tue, 2011-05-17 03:36
(from here)
The Great Day is upon us.
Few weeks back I penned a review of LA Noire which has since had a few thousand page reads. Our piece generated interest only because I'd played the game so early. Still, must confess to being enamored of the reaction it received.
It can be interesting/painful to read was the standout: in that my historical interpretation was interesting, as such must infer painful did not connote my words were mere product of yr average monograph-producing dullard whose role as an academic historian serves no-one but his colleague. Don't get me wrong—most of my work is performed for a small circle in allied studies—but the social function of critiquing LA Noire I take as a solemn task. In any event, I'm going to consider painful as synonymous with challenging. ("Blogging" Noire makes the process all the more important and aggravating...that I subconsciously include but consciously reject Sherman Kent's Writing History; never thought I'd have to grapple with that.)
My critique of Noire resulted in a little behind-the-scenes action, as you might imagine. Actually, I don't know what you might imagine. Probably some dime-novel enantiodromia: "Rockstar worked so hard on recreating the world of 1947 Los Angeles, they may've well given us a game about dragging an oxcart through the Duchy of Lotharingia." Nope, never implied that, nor did R* have to send their dime-novel goons after me either. Rather, now that the reviews are coming in fast and furious, it looks like they have their issues. And I have mine. Overall, me and the conventional reviewer are both quite positive. I, however, represent that previously unthought-of, unrecognized, and underutilized market: the first-time gamer. Who knew?
Anyway...as I aimlessly occupy myself like everyone else for said game to be released in a coupla hours, we'll amuse ourselves by playing "Critique the Critiques!" (Which I must admit is rather pointless as everyone who might read this once it's posted will be glued to their consoles, chasing bad guys up Main St.)
It's a really interesting article; it's quite critical of the game in terms of minute geographic accuracy, but the nature of the criticisms he makes seem so picky that it's clear that in the broad sense, at least, the city is very accurately recreated. If his complaints are mainly that signs exist that didn't exist until the early 50's, or that there were stairs rather than a road at a certain intersection, I feel pretty confident that they got the big stuff right.
Which is a fascinating statement. Naturally, I would counter with the dusty old Miesian idiom "God is in the details." I mean, Rockstar's consumed with the Gesamkunstwerk here, and you're going to let the details slide? Hey, I warned y'all. I self-confessed to nitpickery in my own text. To continue:
GotDAMN, I think they're almost expecting too much out of the game with some of those nitpicks, and also don't seem to have a firm grasp on the concept that videogames are still very much limited by the hardware. I will commend him on the amount of information in that article, but it's a little overboard IMO. And with no mention of the face capturing tech + hiring all these actors to actually play their parts, someone should tell him that the huge budget he mentioned couldn't all go towards recreating a perfect 1947 LA brick by brick.
I got that he still enjoyed it, but I feel like maybe if he stated some of his complaints in front of the Rockstar reps, they could've or should've explained how they couldn't afford to focus on recreating a 100% perfect city because they're building a GAME, and not a 1947 LA simulator. While he does point out that he pushed the "game aspects" to the background for that article since that's not where his areas of expertise lie, I think doing that does a disservice to just how much work the team has to do when making all this stuff.
I'd like to hear his opinion of the game after he puts 20 hours into it, and whether or not he's still looking at what's NOT there instead of the whole picture.
I see where you're coming from, but he explicitly noted he had no idea about video games or the industry, and was really only brought in to sample the world, not the game.
I think he was credited as a consultant too, so he probably invested considerable emotion regarding the ultimate recreation of LA.
I agree with everything said above: quite sure I'm expecting too much, nor do I have a firm grasp on anything, plus LA can't be recreated brick by brick, and no, it's not a simulator, etc. On the other hand, in case it didn't come through, I want it known that I laud Team Responsible to no end. Could I have constructed such a world? Hella course not. Let it be known I am eternally grateful and thankful to those who did. Now, will I be a "whole picture" guy after twenty hours of gameplay, as to which commenter above alluded? We'll see.
And to set the record straight on that last sentence, no, yours truly was not a consultant. That notwithstanding, I'll own up to that "he probably invested considerable emotion regarding the ultimate recreation of LA" part. I mean, they'd announced their "perfect recreation" in September of '06. And considerable emotion had already been invested in the Chitwood case and now we're honored to have gamers discover it here. Or take Eugene White: close to my heart, a non-criminal whose story included his wife to the detriment of his progeny—R*/Bondi later decided, in true noir form, to change White to Black...and lest we forget the O'Connor Electroplating Explosion, which I'm off to inundate myself with now...like sand through the hourglass, these are the kills of our lives. Should have you know I'm not the only one with my ear pressed close to the beating heart of 1947 and her legacy.
Historical knowledge will always at best be an approximation of the past. I know that. Clio alone possesses the real truth, and she will only allow us a glimpse of her treasure. The WPA maps, the Spence Air Photos, the 180,000 photos Bondi surveyed (ok, I raise an eyebrow at that number) show the dedication to which they aspired. It's refreshing, since kids today seem to be under the spell of Antoine Roquentin or the influence of Paul Valéry. History may be an argument without end, granted; but history is no less potent than our present, and when it is skewed, so skewed is our present.
Thus go the criticisms of 47PplaysLANoire, they are many and varied, but at least they all recognize what I strove to point out: I'm no gamer.
Even that concept gets called to the carpet. Was lunching the other day with a pal, and the subject of my virgin PS3 came up, and I ran through my Luddite rap, blah dee blah, which at this point I admit now sounds like so much shtick.
Politely ignoring me, my friend asked "How are you of all people not a gamer?"
"How do you mean?"
"You're always going on about the zombie apocalypse—"
"Forthcoming zombie apocalypse," I corrected.
"Whatever. You've worked through a hundred ways to defeat zombies. Then there's your contingency plan for alien incursion or if the city is overrun by spies. Or Nazis. Or robots. You're a dedicated firearm enthusiast, and on entering a room you take stock of its exits and supplies. Didn't you once say that on entering a room you rank it on whom you can leave behind, but you'd never leave behind ammo?"
"That's just common sense. You gonna finish your fries?"
"Not to mention that thing you do where you sit motionless staring at a screen, tapping away, for days on end. Classic gamer action."
"Whose clinical name is hyperfocus. Blessing and a curse. Tell your gamer friends it's playing havoc with their dopamine levels."
Most men memorize NBA stats, and do so in the hope they'll get to use them: bar bet-winning material. But zombie killing tactics and SERE training is akin to having that gun in the nightstand—it's there with the hope that it never, ever provides utility. Relatedly, why would I devote my days immersed in some blood-drenched environment, a titanic flatscreen taking me through that world I so desperately wish to avoid? I have enough problems with my nightmares. I don't even set foot into my local market any more because I'm certain Y'golonac is the manager there.
But I can't turn a blind eye to LA Noire. The concept is too engrossing, my need too enveloping. I wrote in my previous piece of the game's relationship to historiography. At this point, in a fever to amble into 1947, any further writing on the subject would more be akin to hagiography. After which the aforementioned "painful" epithet would be hurled with deserved, less subjective abandon.
So tomorrow begins. I know it will be a succulent adventure, thick with wonder; at its best, I know it will be an interesting/painful journey.
That's all I ever asked.
1947project plays LA NoireSubmitted by nathan on Thu, 2011-04-21 00:34
(Signal Oil/Fine Arts Barker Bros)
Greetings, 47fans!
Been three years since our last post here, five-plus since those of the 1947 variety in particular. Of course post-47project there's been On Bunker Hill and In SRO Land and many other adventures. But now it's back to 1947--and why revisit that storied year of LA noir? LA Noire.
Unless you've been under a rock (a vaunted haunt, I'd say) you've likely heard of LA Noire. If not, here's the skinny. Rockstar Games (renowned for their Grand Theft Auto franchise, say) and game developer Team Bondi announce in September '06 that they intend to produce a video game set in the Los Angeles of 1947. Gamers drool over the prospective enormous open-world aspect and its MotionScan technology; we Old LA geeks get all excited about, of course, the prospect of shelving our Beta cassettes of The Turning Point and Hollow Triumph and taking a dérive through re-created 1947 LA. From there, we waited.
The years rolled on, drop dates came and went, but then, these things take time. Four years and change after that initial announcement, R*/Bondi announce Noire's in-store buy-em-up day: May 17, 2011. In the swell of excitement and promotion before the game's explosion onto the scene, the good folk of the gaming world go and call up those other mid-aught plumbers of the '47geist: us.
In short, I've played it.
Last Saturday, Richard Schave, Kim Cooper and I were led from the Roosevelt Hotel's sun-and-skin drenched poolside
up into one of its dark, curtain-pulled rooms. Said room's only salient feature? 60" flat screen. Pleasantries are made all around and we get down to the business of playing LA Noire.
They had a lot of people there to play that day, in heavy rotation. Mostly gamers from fansites, whom I'm sure picked apart the roguelike procedural sandbox algorithms, about which I confess to know nothing. (Did play ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron all the way through in 1993 and said Ok, I've done that. Went boating once, too, and again, figured once was enough.) Kim's no gamer either. So we abjured the gameplay and I therefore can comment neither on LA Noire's authority as a "game" nor on how it succeeds in its mimetic vs. diegetic structure. I was there to look at stuff. Their company rep in our room gave us a half-hour (which we stretched into an hour) to tool around Old LA -- an hour of incessant mumbles and rants that surely came off as so much demented logorrhea.
All of which I'll share with you now. Will endeavor to imbue it with some measure of coherence one notch above logorrhea; can't guarantee it won't be demented.
First thing I did was study LAN's greater map. It's an oblong affair, kind of a boomerang shape, roughly bordered by Franklin on the north, the river at the east, Olympic along the south, and La Brea at the west. Within these boundaries there are, I was told, eight miles of perfectly rendered roads to traverse. And I fully intended to put this topography to test in the limited time I had.
So we jumped into the world. Commenced inside Central Police Division, the 1896 "Old Central" at the SW corner of First and Hill (demolished in 1956, a year after Parker Center opened, natch). There was some ambient gametalk about how I was one Cole Phelps, former Marine and newly-minted LAPD detective, which was all fine and good when, as I ambled down some hallway, I glanced out of the side of my Phelpsian eye the view through the window and espied a great dusty promontory.
Oh, I knew it well all right. It loomed over First; the Hill Street Tunnel bored through it. That the game designers could get something that correct through some random dirty window, well, that bode well.
Above, aforementioned "dusty promontory" as seen from its dust down toward the police station of which I spake. Lobby card from Shockproof, 1949, author's collection
That hill is long gone, and I wanted to see it: without a thought I roughly pushed past the odd dirty desk and water cooler, shoving aside my fellow officer until at once, after a lifetime of waiting, I bolted out into the daylight. The 1947 daylight. Blinked my eyes in wonder. A red car trolley clattered past. Turned and peered down First at Austin's State Building looming in the distance. I'm not ashamed to say I found the moment absolutely thrilling.
Ran into the street, badged some broad in a shiny new Hudson, commandeered her car and set off for Bunker Hill, every synapse firing. Some semaphore dared raise its "stop" signal at me and I blew through the intersection, neatly clipping a Caddy, fishtailing onto the sidewalk, sending pedestrians scurrying. (All at once I could see the appeal of this thing.) But my car, and neurons, came to a screeching halt as I hit Second and Hill -- for there, instead of roadbed running up to Olive, were only stairs alongside the tunnel.
Which was just...wrong. I gunned my Hudson up those steps anyway, made it about halfway before my transport chugged to a sad stop. Fine, I'd take in the Hill on foot. I ran up the rest of the staircase (without expending any actual energy or effort...doubling the appeal!) and turned to ask...where was the Astoria? This game's early promise was dwindlling rapidly. The Hillcrest had a butcher instead of its dry cleaners? This was not boding well.
The most-used phrase to describe LA Noire is "perfectly recreated." Now, let me say that I'm not trying to be needlessly critical, but this is criticism after all, and it's the only kind of criticism I do. A post such as this merely underscores that we at 1947p take our re-presentation of a world dear to our hearts with unyielding gravity. To put it nicely, omission of oft-photographed (disinclude Angels Flight Pharmacy? Really?) buildings is a bit perplexing. That the repetition of perplexing omissions was disheartening and maddening I trust is a given.
I queried some of the game guys afterward about why some landmarks might be missing, and they posited that it could be because Corporate couldn't secure the rights to images of those structures. A possibility, but not a probability. For example, back in Noire's LA, I cruised up Third to Grand. Looking north, at the NW corner, there stood 301/303 S Grand, AKA 725 W 3rd. Shots of this house are pretty rare. But across the street at the NE corner, there was no Nugent, nor, at the SE corner, was there the Lovejoy, which have both been captured to great degree. Thus it was with some trepidation I walked up to Bunker Hill Avenue -- which wasn't there. It had been reconfigured as an alleyway. Bunker Hill Avenue is unusually, unreasonably important to Los Angeles, mid-Century especially; noir pictures were shot there, for example, The Castle was used in Kiss Me Deadly. If they'd asked me for any or all of my many rights-free vintage postcards of the Melrose, or unpublished kodachromes of the Castle, they coulda had 'em. (Don't even get me started on where they put the terminus of the Third Street tunnel.)
So I trudged back to town. At least I could ride Angels Flight down to Hill, right? Nope, in this world Angels Flight is stationary. I can plow a beautifully rendered Packard Deluxe Clipper 8 Club Sedan through three blocks of streetlights, but can't ride the arguably most iconic piece of Angelenic transportation 315 feet? With streets replete with DeSotos and crisscrossing streetcars, 1947 the height of its ridership, Angels Flight sits as motionless as it did during its down days. This too I brought up to one of the reps, and was told that what I was playing wasn't the final version, and that perhaps a running funicular was to be, but just, you know, not in this "build." I believe what he was attempting to connote was that I was playing an old version. So there's your caveat, dear reader: perhaps everything I'm saying is based on some outdated model. Perhaps everything I'm bitching about is being fixed right now.
Naturally my most stringent criticism was going to be reserved for Bunker Hill; ironically, it was Bunker Hill which let down the most.
Once I was back in Noire's downtown, my spirits lifted a bit. "Go to the Westminster!" chimed Kim, and I hotfoot-ed it down to Fourth and Main, and damned if that didn't restore the thrilling feeling I had at the start. I took in the pre-extruded metal facade at Cliftons (now being returned to its pre-1962 visage) and was tickled by the tiki torches blazing in the doorway of the beautifully rendered Clifton's Pacific Seas on Olive. Ambled amongst the palms toward the famous fountain in Pershing Square. The Rosslyn Hotel had her twin blade signs, just as she should. Standing at Sixth and Fig with the Gates over my left shoulder and the Richfield looming up above me was...something. The JESUS SAVES neon signs were where they should be, living large behind the library, and the Engstrum...the Engstrum. There I stood in front of the Sunkist and Engstrum with the Edison at my right. It was quite a moment. (Added bonus for the novitiate: backs to the library, a pop-up allowed us to access historical information about said Goodhue structure. These pop-uppy whatnots, suggested but not demanded, occur at the usual suspects across the City.) As an oil man by trade, my reigning interest was in motoring down to the gas holders the other side of Union Station. Those behemoths made my heart skip a beat. From there I sauntered like a flâneur up Seventh -- Dodd and Richards row, pretty nice.
But it was the Spring Arcade...that really showed me the true virtue of the game. I was busy crashing Chryslers, gazing gape-mouthed as I pummeled pedestrians, blah dee blah, video game stuff, when I screeeee parked my car lengthwise across Broadway. Exited said car, walked with dedicated purpose across the street -- traffic came to a halt, ladies in veils waved their begloved fists at me -- and I stepped into the quietude of the Spring Arcade. It was a revelation. Deep into our maniacal race to experience all we could see in this recreated world, I was now in the Arcade sans crap electronics and discount socks: a place of peace and elegance, as anathematic to 1947 as it is to 2011. People of 2011 (that's you) can and should traverse what is LA's most sublime space. That you may imagine its former glory, courtesy of and via this game, is rather lovely.
Would that it were all hearts and rainbows, though. There were problems:
The Westminster lacked its trademark sunburst canopies. And consider the San Carlos: in the Noire version of '47 reality, the San Carlos exists, structurally, somewhere between its original "wedding cake" incarnation of 1911 and its 1930s cleanlining, i.e., there was an apparent misalignment in the matter transporter integrator/disentgrator device (shameless plug for the '58 version of The Fly) because here the San Carlos retains its Auditorium-era finials, though in a mutated streamline version. Weird.
Also, the Hippodrome has been depicted as a structure separate from the Westminster. Across the street was of course The Follies, which has here been mistakenly represented as a motion-picture house, instead of as a burlesque-eteria: its bump-n-grind 1947 reality would have actually made this landscape more noir. (I might add that in Noire's world LA's picture-houses, according to their maquees, featured the same few 1947 noir films, and ignored the dictate of Warner's showing Warners, RKO showing theirs, etc.)
Where was the Follies' neighbor Goodfellow's Grotto, touchstone of the time? And, to this day, along the backside of the Barclay, there exists a magnificent ghost sign, sad to see the gamefolk didn't record it -- the IN Van Nuys hotel had become the Barclay a full decade before 1947: so, where was the thing? It's not like Team Bondi wasn't there to photographic it: we all followed the tale of their rummaging through the hotel. The Chocolate Shop was an empty lot. The Baltimore Hotel was missing its blade signage (crimininally dumpstered a decade ago), but, most shockingly, King Eddie was utterly absent. (Which is absolutely mystifying in that it stands there to this day in all its glory. Perhaps it's just not in this "build?") The Monarch was also plucked from the landscape. Odd.
Some examples. Here's a screengrab from their site.
We're looking up Fourth toward Olive. Now, while you're playing the game, you're very likely concerned with that guy shooting at you. But here, we treat background as foreground, so: the designers used an early image on which to render this scene. By 1947, the Hotel Clark Garage, right, had become the Center Garage. That mission-style building, background left, the Fremont Hotel, had a blade sign running down its east flank.
Now here's an instance where the designers used an image later than 1947 to design Noire:
We're careening up Fig, and in the distance, the Architects Building, but see those letters atop? They read "Douglas Oil" and weren't placed there until after Douglas purchased the building in 1959. Guess you should probably be more worried about the big scary car crashing into you, and all the flying sparks, but, well, we each have our own issues.
Again, there may be some bugs to be worked out. How was it that on my way up Main, St. Vibiana's was missing, but turn around and head south, and it appears? The same wonkiness held true with a trip down Fig, wherein the Architects Building is an empty lot; but, motor a couple blocks and crane your head around, there it is behind you. Perhaps these li'l bugaboos (I'm sure they just rasterized their RAM with too little ROM, or something) will've been worked out by the time they ship product. I hope so -- these bits of motorized strangeness disorient and dislodge one from the moment.
You'd think we were done for the day, but KC & I, feverishly sweating blood, handing the controller to one another, and scaring our handler with the aforementioned glossolalia, had places to go. We tore down Wilshire -- as much as I love the 60s Corporate Brutalism of DMJM's American Cement, its absence certainly put me squarely in the game's frame. But even with the Gaylord in the distance, Wilshire petered out before we hit The Ambassador. Yes, our first instance where we had come to The End of Our World. I don't play games; I drive around LA. So I don't take roadblocks lightly. But I was at the mercy of a higher power. Not the AA kind. The Thirteenth Floor kind.
So as I so often do (especially when confronted with a higher power), I went another way. Up Kenmore, or Arlington (another problem with this game -- no street signs, not a one -- should you want to know where you are, you have to jump out of gameplay and into a map) and into Hollywoodland. I could give just as detailed a description of Hollywood as I did for downtown (to which I did a disservice by not seeing a tenth of what I intended to) but I'll save that, I think. Something tells me this won't be the last of this nitpickery. Suffice it to say, for the time being, seeing Sardi's in the flesh, so to speak, was charming. That I went to bed that night replaying how I clipped a Chrysler Airflow and slammed my midnight blue '47 Lincoln Continental convertible into the NBC building...priceless. On the other hand, one of my mussitations while motoring along Sunset was "If the globe on Crossroads is spinning the right way, I'll buy this thing." Not only not the right way, but not spinning. At all. Like Angels Flight, it was stationary. And did I mention it wasn't a globe? Just a blue ball.
How apt.
And thusly we were done. I tossed the controller to the floor and breathed a bit.
Ushered back out poolside, where all was well-lit, well-oiled and eumorphous. I wanted to cry, Don't you know where you are? But I guess what I really meant was Don't you know where I've been? Richard drove us back to Lincoln Heights. I was in an impatient state of anxiety over his unwillingness to blow through intersections and use sidewalks as his motorway.
As we drove home, the streets were uncrowded, the sky was sunny. Just as it was in...LA Noire. Which raises the question -- what? Los Angeles was famously congested in 1947. Moreover, 1947 LA was poisonously polluted. My synapses sprang back to life, whence came new questions: having only traversed the Noire landscape in daylight, what does nighttime look like? (Are the animated signs animated, e.g., the bowling neon on Vine or the bowling incandescent on Sunset? Do vespertine activities shift in form and function?) Is the Noire world racially accurate? (As I drive down Central to bop with the heads, how do the demographics shift? Or up Broadway into New Chinatown? If faces are actually Asian there, will they differentiate in any way from those in our Shō-tōkyō?)
We wound through the streets. I closed my eyes and tried to keep close to 1947 LA. Traffic roared by, but it didn't sound quite correct. I mean, a Pontiac Streamliner 8 sounds like nothing else in the world. So my final muttering of the day was vedremo. Vedremo. Those Germans, they may have a word for everything, but the Italians, they only have words for those things that absolutely matter. A favorite of theirs, heard across pre-unification "Italy," was/is vedremo. It means we shall see. We shall see, indeed.
But I live now. It's been a couple days and I've cogitated a spell. If you've read this far, it won't shock you to hear that I don't cotton to anachronism. But Mr. Nathan, I hear you say, Renaissance art was the rebirth of antiquity, but you nevertheless routinely witness The Virgin in 15th c. Italian dress and the Four Fathers in Flemmish garb all the time. I would counter that the renovatio was about the remaking of a living culture through the interjection of Greco-Roman concepts of perfection, and if you want to continue your argument, I know, town clocks didn't strike in the ancient Rome of Shakespeare's Julius Ceasar either. Anachronism in the commission of art, is not only nothing new, but is common currency.
But I'm not writing about those. I'm writing about this. It purports to be historical, and when that happens, I'm on the case. I'm Cole-Fucking-Phelps.
Thus I am a detective, present day, but with retrocognitive disorder. Retrocognition is the concept that one can view a place and see into it its variegated layers of the past. While I may appear flippant on the subject, trust me, it's a difficult state of perception to harbor or describe. The German critic Walter Benjamin described the colportage phenomenon of space, wherein "we simultaneously perceive all the events which might conceivably have taken place here." But I don't see Los Angeles, historically, as collapsed space; I see it as an artichoke, where one must peel back layers to reveal its heart. But it's also an onion. Peel away its layers, find nothing inside, end up crying.
Neither 1947 Los Angeles nor its progeny LA Noire merely exist within the colportage; this game is being entered into the historiography of postwar Los Angeles. That canon is unbearably important (you know, to some of us), but who are its keepers? From March 2005 on, there was us at 47p. As has been discussed on this site, Ask the Dust didn't look quite right, and DePalma's 1947-fest Black Dahlia, released the year LA Noire was announced, shot as it was in Bulgaria, didn't look quite right either. Those two movies were of course seen by a sum total of eleven people. Of HBO's recent Mildred Pierce -- tossing in a handful of palm trees and some awkward CGI couldn't change the quality of that New York light. MP was seen by about a million people. Rockstar's most recent venture, Grand Theft Auto IV, has sold twenty million units.
Noire shall then be the introduction for many to the wonderful world of 1947 Los Angeles, and as they learn it in its eidetic state, they are going to come away with a view of the City at a place in time that is almost, but not quite. If they learn it here first, then, when they subsequently see it presented accurately, they'll figure the simulacrum to be the true version. (If this paragraph incites just one discussion about teleology and metanarrative, that would be awesome. If it makes you think about the Bath Block, that would be better.)
Coleridge was all up in our grill about willingly suspending disbelief. As such, I'd like to think the onus was solely on me, infinitely forgiving the game designers, and overlooking the limitations of the media -- but I can't. I understand that when I watch Life On Mars, set in the 70s, it's low budget; they can't remove every incorrect park bench and satellite antenna. That the Coens couldn't expunge some modern Carl's Jr. signage from their set-in-1980 No Country for Old Men, well, fine...their budget was a mere twenty-five million dollars. But LA Noire is total fantasy, drawn (literally) (no, not literally, because they "capture" these things, but anyway) from images, and its budget is fifty, maybe a hundred million dollars. So forgive me should I seem to hold these gents to unreasonably high standards. In layman's terms, I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin': the past has as its nature an irretrievability and should someone attempt to articulate it, they are opening themselves up to rearticulation.
To wit: I think there's a certain Whiggishness at work here, and rightfully so. LA of Noire is portrayed in all the glory of its expanse, after all, 1940s LA affluence and vastness took countless untolds out of the slums of the East. Its portrayal here is at the same time a revisionist history, in that LA's skies are rendered blue and her streets rasterized as nearly empty. I have not, of course, touched on the whole "1947 LA is thick with serial killers and corruption" history, because I did not technically play the game. From perusing the R* site, seems like they've an angle as regards the Jeanne French killing. As "crime buff" falls under the umbrella of social historian, I have come to know, and from there have become close to, Jeanne French. Not Ellroy/Short close, but, still, don't like to see her memory played with. The women for whom I have a particular affinity -- Trelstad and Mondragon and of course my comrade Evelyn Winters -- how, if at all, will they be fictionalized in this game?
Obviously, I want the world of 1947 treated with some respect. Noire's designers did a commendable job, and were not lazy in attempting to achieve great things. But let me have a parting shot at this "perfectly recreated" business -- the pundits routinely repeat it. I expect lazy journalism. But let's say 1947 LA was perfectly recreated. By whom? Obviously not by someone with phenomenological understanding of the time and place (though such folk do exist, they are now really rather unreliable, God bless 'em) so it must therefore be done by historians...many of whom I know, none I which were ever contacted. Personally, I've never been to the past, nor have the game's designers or builders, or scripters. Therefore LA Noire has an enormous burden to bear regarding its legacy -- and if they'd worked on it another five years, would they reach a level of accuracy that would be acceptable to me? Even if I gave it an A-1 rating, wouldn't some upstart still pick it apart?
Noire, I'm assuming, will be an international success. The upside being it will introduce the public to a world they may have never considered: e.g., one without computers and cell phones. Will players perceive this as a pro or con? How and why might they reinterpret their present via time spent in the past? We may romanticize the past, but nothing's sugar-coated in noir. Murder is one thing; it's eternal. 1947's specific relationship to race and gender and class is something else altogether, and what players take away from living in that world, for however short a spell, will be telling. Heck, would it be cooler to play the game wth a case of typhoid or TB? One can only hope the millions who navigate this new (old) world take from it something useful and interesting. (Maybe they'll even go and investigate some old noir thereby freeing up a seat for a good movie.)
But here's the thing. I teach people the past. And now, along comes the best flight simulator I've ever seen. So is it better that LA Noire exists in its imperfect form than to not exist at all? I suppose so, since, as a young man it was beat into me that the cacotechny was part of the flux of art. And yet one can argue that producing something this good, this complex, with such problems, should not have been done. It raises too many philosophical issues, none of which I'm prepared to discuss, and likewise too many architectural issues, all of which I'm hot to discuss.
Which, unfortunately for both of us, dear reader, I will now have to do. As in, I just totally Amazon'd a PS3 (whatever that may be) and a 60" flatscreen, just like they had in that there Roosevelt hotel room. And I have the sneaking suspicion that I'm going to spend the majority of these forthcoming lovely spring days, when a boy's heart turns to romance, holed up in my TV room, shooting people in the face and driving an Olds up those Second Street stairs, whether they existed in real life or not.
It begins.
Reserve to take Nathan Marsak's free downtown L.A. Noire walking tour on May 29. Details here.
In the Line of DutySubmitted by nathan on Fri, 2008-03-14 20:17
March 16, 1927
Los Angeles
If the drys are gonna catch the wets, they're gonna have to wet themselves. So to speak.
At the trial of John H. Wyncoop, former chief field agent for the boys of the California/Arizona Federal Prohibition Enforcement Department, Wyncoop said "I knew that if I had liquor in my possession I could more easily get bootleggers to believe that I was handling booze and therefore make it easier to arrest bootleggers."
Wyncoop is on trial because he turned twenty-nine bottles of liquor to his own use, instead of turning it into the government warehouse. Can't those government know-nothings see that you need that hooch to go under deep cover? That he only took home that demon rum in the solemn performance of his duty?
(Convicted by a jury of illegal conversion, he was given a short term in the county jail.)
Behind Every Great Man...Submitted by nathan on Fri, 2008-03-14 20:08
March 16, 1927
Los Angeles
Clarence and Ona Brown were married in 1922, but now Ona wants a divorce. "When I married him," said Mrs. Brown, while weeping bitterly during her testimony before Judge Summerfield, "he was a second-rate assistant director, and I made a director out of him. That cost me my home, for he got to thinking so well of himself he attempted to boss the house. He went nearly a year without even speaking to me."
(She may have a point; see this page under "salary.")
Ona's testimony was neither denied nor contested, and she won her decree.
Think of that the next time you watch "Garbo's favorite director".
Grossery ShoppingSubmitted by nathan on Fri, 2008-03-14 20:05
March 15, 1927
Los Angeles
Traditionally, the term greengrocer refers to a retail tradesperson who sells fresh fruits and vegetables. Should you be down on Temple Street, you might find grocer Edith Green to be a greengrocer of the green meat variety. Mmmm. Heck, even her Temple Street neighbor Abraham Margolis purveys criminally suspect comestibles.
Edith, at 922 Temple, and Abraham, at 937, were both charged with selling adulterated and contaminated foodstuffs. Stock amounting to $2,500 ($29,055 currentUSD) were ordered destroyed, she given thirty and he 180 days in the hoosegow, suspended on the condition that they clean up their act. And their stores.
As much fun as it would be to venture in to those structures now to see what eighty year-old smells lingered from the putrid pigs feet and bad borscht, we'll have to content ourselves with visualizing such while whizzing under the one-ten:
The Dyak Go GreenSubmitted by nathan on Sun, 2008-03-09 14:03
March 9, 1927
On the one hand, the Dutch government's Eurocentric cultural imperialism is wiping out the native culture of Borneo; on the other, they're teaching headhunters the benefits of recycling.
The Dyak have long needed a nice fresh human caput for any and every sort of local ritual, but the generations-long war against the practice by their clogphilic, decapitated-headphobic overlords, has shown them the benefits of conservation (long practiced in the densely populated liberal parliamentary democracy that is Holland).
It is reported that now, the Dyak just borrow heads from neighbors for celebrations such as the birth of a child or the ending of a period of mourning. In fact, a paltry few heads are passed around in a tribe where just a generation ago each family had a bag of its own.
(According to Dr. William O. Krohn, Chicago alienist, there's still no lack of headhunting when absolutely necessary—a rajah's death demands craniums, for example, and victims thus beheaded are regarded as members of the monarch's heavenly retinue.)
Despite the Dyak's newfound respect for Westernized ideals, Borneo's 1957 independence from windmills and tulips removed such colonialist standards of civility. The wild and wooly Americas, though, never had a break from her fascination with beheading.
Closer to home, LAPD became head-hunters of another kind when in January 1939, Cleveland Chief of Police George Matowitz received a letter postmarked from Los Angeles that read in part:
(Relatedly, while there are few great films about Los Angeles, there are fewer great films about headhunting. And Los Angeles.)
Of Pachydermatae and MurderSubmitted by nathan on Sun, 2008-03-02 15:15
March 2, 1927
Los Angeles
The Wonderly shooting of Emerson over an elephant's affection has been continued until March 15th.
George "Scotty" Wonderly is the keeper of the bloodhounds for the studios, George Emerson, trainer of the lions at Universal City.
The story has a Old West theme to it to boot: on 15 February last, the two were arguing over the affections of said elephant at Universal. Wonderly called Emerson out; Wonderly strapped on his single shot .45 and there, on a rain-soaked muddy street, surrounded by wooden shacks and gambling dens and dance halls, Emerson staggered and twisted and slowly fell, a bullet through his breast, out his back, and lodged into the Last Chance Saloon. Elephants and the Old West, together again.
Here, Wonderly shows how his beloved raised its trunk...and went on to maintain that he acted in self-defense.
And of the love that dare not trumpet its name...the true heart's desire of the elephant remains a sweet mystery.
The Great PhallusySubmitted by nathan on Sun, 2008-03-02 14:24
March 1, 1927
"Feminism is destructive of women's happiness," declares Gina Lombroso Ferrero, Italy's first woman physician and daughter of Cesare Lombroso (who, with Gina's husband, wrote The Female Offender). You may know Gina as author of the Italian 1922 antifeminist classic The Soul of Woman.
"It endeavors to bring women to the enjoyment of all privileges enjoyed by man; it encourages woman to copy man in the understanding that in this way woman will enjoy all pleasures which she formerly enjoyed as well as those which only man enjoys.
"Woman and man are different," states the plucky Gina, "and suffer and derive pleasure from different things. Aspirations which are in the one case strong and permanent are in the other case minor and transitory. The aspirations toward glory, independence, riches, power are permanent and powerful in man, incremental and impermanent in woman, whereas aspiration to love and of loving, or reuniting one's self to continuous life are stable elements in woman and comparatively passing and irrational impulses in man." Therefore, woman can never fine happiness in doing man's work, because it is too alien to her real interests.
Ya see, "once the man has ceased to love the woman from the viewpoint of the usefulness she can have for him, her altruism, her gentleness, her devotion to him, then he ceases to desire woman because of gratitude for the services she can render him, casts her aside as a permanent companion and sees in her only the female who can excite and satisfy his senses."
She may sound terrifically reactionary, but take solace in knowing that Mussolini exiled her in 1930 for being antifascist. Although to be honest, she was only exiled for being terrifically reactionary; GLF was also a staunch and vocal opponent of the wonders of the machine age.
The Mustard Seed MurderSubmitted by nathan on Mon, 2008-02-25 10:38
February 24, 1927
Los Angeles
In what the papers have dubbed the "Mustard-Seed Murder," we see once again that, gentlemen, your sartorial decisions are always of importance. (Damn trouser cuffs! Were this 1960, this condemned man would've walked free.)
The murder in question dates back to October 20, 1926, when one Charles O. Westcott, 63 years of age and scion of General Grant, opened his door at 909 S. Cochran St. only to met by a gun-wielding assailant. Blam! Blam!—one to the heart, one in the stomach. Unfortunately for Charles' son Carl, Charles' dying words to his new wife were "Carl shot me."
Apparently Carl, 40, was vexed that his father left a $300,000 ($3,486,687 USD2007) trust to the aforementioned new wife Hazel. And then there was the matter of the $100,000 trust that Carl's grandfather was to leave to his son Charles…but with Carl's father Charles out of the way…it would go straight to Carl.
Detectives didn't really buy Carl's long and rambling alibi, involving a gambler's den at Seventh and San Pedro, and a dance hall on Hill off Sixth. Nor did they take his alibi's verification for much, given as it came from a bootlegger and some other underworld habitués. Despite Carl's regal upbringing, he's a part-time barber with a record, having done time in Folsom and Stillwater on forgery charges.
And so today begins Westcott the Younger's trial. The crux of the trial comes down to the mustard seeds found in his trouser cuffs—the assassin was spotted escaping through the the vacant lot to the north (now 905 South Cochran, not built upon til 1928), and dang'd if Carl wasn't found with a few inconspicuous mustard seeds and a half-dozen broken blades of grass, indentical to those from the lot, in his cuffs. (Westcott also contended that he tore his trousers at the knee while tripping on the rough steps of that Sixth Street dive; investigation revealed those steps to be carpeted; the prosecution points to a plank with in the lot with matching fibers.)
He is convicted March 2, and March 9 sentenced to life imprisonment at Folsom; two more trials on points of law (and a botched suicide attempt) failed to free him. But his March 1929 sanity trial got him sprung from Folsom and committed to the State Hospital at Norwalk, to be held until such time as he was mentally competent to go on trial again for the murder charge.
As there's no further mention of Westcott again, we can only assume he elected to stay put.
Physician, Kill ThyselfSubmitted by nathan on Sun, 2008-02-17 19:45
February 17, 1927
Santa Ana
The widow Alice Hanmore has a bone to pick with Evangelists, or, more specifically, the College of Medical Evangelists. Truth be told, evangelists should be, oh, evangelical, and leave the application of Röntgen rays to the professionals.
In March of 1926 Alice's husband M. J. Hanmore, a Fullerton oil worker, began experiencing stomach pains and loss of appetite; Drs. Claude E. Steen, Emerald J. Steen and John A. Whalen of the CME/White Memorial Hospital decided that an intensive course of that ever-beneficial ionizing radiation would do the trick. Today, Alice is charging in court that "negligent and unskillful" employment of X-rays resulted in severe fatal burns—she's asking for $30,000 ($348,669 USD2007).
(Our evangelical docs Steen & Steen will make the papers again in March, charged of malpractice by one Mary A. Greene of Fullerton—she goes in for an ingrown toenail, so they take that portion of the nail. So far so good. Steen & Steen subsequently amputate her big toe. Then they amputate much of her leg. Further operations result in anthropy of Mary's thigh muscles. She'll ask for $25,000.)
We're Saved!Submitted by nathan on Sun, 2008-02-17 18:43
February 16, 1927
Los Angeles
Those junkies and hopheads that once provided the occasional bruise on this perfect ripe plum that is Los Angeles—shall be no more! Though alcoholism was cured in 1908, drug addiction still remains to blight the landscape. But Narcosan has arrived to save the day!
Drs. E. H. Anthony and Benjamin Blank, their committee of peace officers and other physicians in tow, have at their disposal the first shipment from New York of this new European wonder drug.
Any addicted Angeleno can trot down to Blank's offices in the Quinby Building, Seventh and Grand, and take the cure free of charge. They've got fifteen addicts lined up to undergo treatment and are looking to administer to at least another ten, so get down there you, you narc-addled fiend!
(Despite liberal Narcosan administration to the lucky souls who so evidently deserved it, apparently the wonder drug didn't work out so well.)
The Internet of YesteryearSubmitted by nathan on Sun, 2008-02-10 11:35
February 10, 1927
Los Angeles
Ho! Wuxtry!
Those mockery-making purveyors of pasquinade Pi Delta Epsilon are at it again—it's the new issue of the Razzberry! Not to be confused with a Bruinite's Hell's Bells, the Razzberry is the Trojaninny's main road to mirth, and boulevard to bellylaughs!
Yes, the new ish of USC lampoon rag The Razzberry is out, and you should pick one up. You'll know the rag by its scent of scandal and journalistic tinge of yellow. And by those gents dressed as prison inmates hawking 'em! (As jailbirds stand, you see, in direct opposition of all that college and higher education hold dear, these lettered loons gave gab garbed as hostages…of hilarity!)
But be stout of heart…"Stories range from an exposé of supposed corruption to accounts of wild orgies staged in fraternity houses."
I'm sure those stories were just somethin'. Of course reference to the fraternal wild orgy failed to carry the same import eighty years ago as it does to-day. And the cub reporter of USC's 1927 scandal sheet could only conjecture that in the future, there'd be no lack of diverting folly to make with the waggery over!
The REAL AviatorSubmitted by nathan on Sat, 2008-02-09 17:09
February 9, 1927
Los Angeles
Sure, while we've repeatedly reported to you about blindfolded drivings—today was announced something that actually guarantees splintering wood and crunching metal.
Finley Henderson has a really good idea: dive an airplane from a height of 1,000 feet, clip the wings from the machine between two telegraph poles, and crash into a bungalow with the remains of his plane at sixty miles an hour.
Don't worry: he wears the shoulder and shin guards of the football field, the breast pad of the baseball umpire and a catcher's mask. Kids, try this at home. Above your home. Into your home.
Sponsored by Earl L. White and KELW! Come on out to Burbank's Magnolia Park and watch the fun!
For the record, when the stunt was performed on February 20, Finley emerged unscathed, smoking a cigarette. And then noted for the wowed crowd and boys of the press "The stunt is easy if you know how to do it."
Finley made the news again in June, when, at the Glendale Airport Air Rodeo, just as he was stepping into his plane (this time, to crash into a barn), in front of all those eager spectators, United States Deputy Marshal Charles F. "Spoil Sport" Walsh served Finley a summons. Hot on Walsh's heels were pansy Capts. Walter F. Parkin and William B. Breingan, of the recently created Aeronautics Branch, United States Department of Commerce (oh, Mary), there to enforce their writ of injunction restraining Finley from performing the stunt.
Apparently, these hi-falutin' aeronautics fellows have just made stunting within five miles of a regularly established and operated air line against the law…apparently also is flying a plane that is wholly unsafe, and is likely to collapse upon the audience when in flight.
But wasn't that part of the thrill? No wonder we went into a depression.
The Great Stock 'n' Roll SwindleSubmitted by nathan on Sat, 2008-02-09 16:46
February 9, 1927
Los Angeles
It's a pretty simple scheme.
You own some stock. I approach and inform you that your stock is about to hit bottom. I suggest a trade—your stock for some of mine. The stock I'm offering you is about to go up, up, up, ya see. (Honestly, that's the long and short of my plan; we swap my stock worth a penny for your stock worth a dollar—your greed does all the heavy lifting.)
When Mrs. Frances L. Derby of 502 North Ardmore was approached by some very nice men, she parted with 102 shares of John C. Frey & Assoc. worth $1,020, and 124 shares of California Guarantee Assoc. worth $498, and in exchange was given 4,700 shares of Silas Frank Mining. The Very Nice Men "talked down" her crummy old stock and represented the mining company stock as being worth $1 a share—when in fact it was worth 1 cent a share, or $47. Mrs. Derby was no ordinary rube, though, got wise, and alerted the authorities.
The aforementioned pleasant fellows being Leon F. Wessling, 36, and J. L. Johannes, 38. Detective Lieutenants Davis and Edwards of bunko detail say these two have, from their brokerage firm—a prestigious suite of offices in the Merritt Building—similarly swindled Los Angeles residents out of $75,000 in the past week.
According to Wessling and Johannes' records, the duo finagled $18,000 out of one poor old widow alone.
Sad, true, but at least in a few years there'll be a lot less stock to swindle.


text:
Our clients tell us we have a really unique approach to brands.
There's nothing ordinary about your work they say.
We like what they've said so much, we are changing our name to
Nothing Ordinary.
So while we do that, we have put up this holding page until our new website and branding is ready.
In the meantime we would love to hear from you. We have some great work and innovative ideas we would like to share with you.
Nothing Ordinary
Brand Designers, Brand Strategists, Digital Specialists
Please contact Jonathan on 077 340 54156 or
Email firstname.lastname@example.com

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Because my human life
Hangs heavy upon me,
I try to maintain my friendship
With my divine life.
Alas, my divine life
Is in constant need of repair.
– Sri Chinmoy
Excerpt from: Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, Part 8 by Sri Chinmoy, Copyright (c) 1900 by Sri Chinmoy – All rights reserved


text:
- Filed Under
EAST LANSING -- Travis Trice sat on the bench in street clothes, his return to action for Michigan State uncertain while he experiences concussion-like symptoms.
Gary Harris started but was affected, visibly and often, by back spasms that started last week. Branden Dawson suffered a twisted ankle. Adreian Payne missed a chunk of the second half with a bloody nose.
Finally, Keith Appling left the court Wednesday night with 1:17 remaining, clutching his right shoulder and helped off in pain. ...


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text:
The U-1 Oh Boy! Oberto driven by Steve David cuts in front of the U-5 Graham Trucking boat driven by Jimmy Shane on the Roostertail turn. David received a penalty for the move. / Kirthmon F. Dozier/DFP
Steve Davids heartbreak at the Gold Cup continued Sunday when he was penalized a lap for a lane violation after looking like he might finally beat the Detroit River jinx.
David, 59, finished fourth in the race in the U-1 Oh Boy! Oberto after officials judged he cut off Jimmy Shane in the U-5 Graham Trucking boat in the Roostertail Turn on Lap 1.
Kip Brown, driving the U-95 Spirit of Qatar unlimited hydroplane, went on to win.
David, who has finished runner-up 12 times in the Gold Cup, was disappointed with the referees.
He appeared to have the best boat in the final and was leading at the time of his penalty.
We asked them (the referees) Friday and reconfirmed Saturday if you have a seven-boat overlap going into the turn, the inside boat cannot make that upon the turn, they are stuck where they are, said David in the pits afterward as fans shouted best wishes to him. We had seven boat lengths (lead) coming into that turn, held him tight and they called us for it.
They continue to do this to us. Ive given the referees all the breaks I can. These guys couldnt mind a kindergarten.
In the chaos of Turn 2, Shanes canard was damaged and he couldnt drive the boat smoothly or fast enough to contend. He finished fifth.
We were rolling into the Oberto, and he (David) was supposed to have seven boat lengths on us before he could turn. He clearly didnt. We had the boat to win and were setting up to win. Ill be back next year and do it again. Its great for Kip (Brown). Hes a great guy.
David and Oberto have seven days to appeal, which team representative Bob Hughes said they planned to do.
■ NOTEBOOK: Leland Unlimited racer Ryan Mallow, who suffered a crash Saturday, was released from Detroit Receiving Hospital on Saturday night. Mallow was in second place in the qualifying heat when he flipped the unlimited hydroplane near the Detroit Yacht Club. He suffered a bruised elbow during the crash.
Mallow said: I was pretty lucky. The rescue crew did an amazing job, they were awesome.
Contact Mike Brudenell: 313-222-2115 or firstname.lastname@example.com . Follow him on Twitter @mikebrudenell. Zach Libby contributed to this report.


text:
Material for open book exam released by CBSE
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Tuesday released the text and pictorial material from which the question paper for the Open Text Based Assessment (OTBA) will be prepared. The news of introduction of this revolutionary open book exam concept came out in July 2012 and was officially announced by CBSE a year later.
OTBA will be conducted only for classes IX and XI as part of the final exams in March. For class IX, the OTBA material has been released for all main subjects including Hindi, English, Mathematics, Science and Social Science. For class XI, the text material is for Geography, Economics and Biology. OTBA will be applicable only to these subjects this year.
An open text-based assessment does not mean students will be allowed to take books to the examination hall. In fact, the board will provide case studies to the school much in advance. About 15-20 per cent questions in the paper will be based on this material. However, the CBSE has ensured that OTBA's format does not dilute the process of conducting an exam.
A few months ago, the Board's chairman Vineet Joshi had written to schools that "OTBA will have questions of higher order thinking skills (HOTS) and some of which may be subjective, creative and open-ended". He added that textual material will be related to chosen concepts taken from the syllabi. The content given to students may be in the form of an article, a case study, a diagram, a concept/mind map, a picture or a cartoon, problem/situation based on the concepts taught to students during second term.
The Board has also modified the marks distribution to accommodate OTBA scores in the main subject marks itself. The question papers in main subjects at Summative Assessment (SA)-II will be of 90 marks (in English, of 70 marks + 20 marks for assessment of speaking and listening skills) based on prescribed syllabus and question paper design. The question paper in each main subject will have a separate section of 10 marks for OTBA. The OTBA section will comprise text material accompanied by two or three questions based on this text. The questions based on text will be of HOTS requiring students to apply to the situations given in the article/ report/ case study and draw inferences/conclusions from.
After releasing the content for OTBA on Tuesday evening, CBSE's academic director Sadhana Parashar wrote to schools that the teachers concerned "are expected to read, discuss and analyze" it. She added that the focus of teachers regarding OTBA content must be to understand its objectives and outcomes.
"They (teachers) should assign this text material to their students in groups for further understanding, analysis and discussion. It is reiterated here that the main objective of introducing OTBA is to relieve the students from the burden of mugging up of content and provide opportunities in acquiring skills of information processing, comprehension, analysis and inference. The teachers should guide them, provide feedback and encourage open responses in solving situations. The text also gives some questions as samples. The teachers should develop more such questions which are based on the given text but require answers through application of concepts, further extrapolation, comparison and inference," wrote Parashar.


text:
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I am also new to Brooklyn and CafeMom as well. Our daughter is 18 months old now, I stay at home with her and would love to develop a great social group in this new city :)
Welcome to Brooklyn. We moved to Windsor Terrace in July of last year. I've just now really begun to feel truly settled here. I have a 2 1/12 old son, how old is your kiddo?


text:
Whether you are looking for Beads or Glass Beads, Hotfrog is the place to go to. Browse the businesses below in Durban, KwaZulu Natal or extend your search to nearby suburbs/towns by using the left navigation menu. Hotfrog makes your search easier.
- 07-26-2010
Durban, KwaZulu-Nata
beads incorporated has personalised keyrings that can be used as keyrings,or handbags.it is ideal for christmas and birthday gifts. cost is R25 each and additional cost of R2.OO for gift bags.To view samples contact wit…
Durban, KwaZulu Natal
Stockists of Enzoani, Modeca and Avenue Diagonal by Pronovias wedding dresses. Quality affordable gowns, excellent friendly service. Morningside Durban.
lspecialising in retailing of craft materials mainly paints, varnishes,brushesetc. lessons offered in fabric painting, mosaic, covering of boxes,painting on various surfaces, paint techniques and many more. we also car…
Jabulani Jewellery - manufacturers of handcrafted Zulu beaded jewellery , in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, Africa. Our ethnic beaded jewellery includes beaded necklaces, bracelets, chokers, bangles and earrings in …
Beaded JewelleryBeadBanglesNecklaces
…of specialized services ranging from Caps & Promotional Items, Appliqués, Laser Cutting & Engraving, Sequins, Cornelly, Beading, Tufting, Chenille and much much more... Fashion and Technology go hand in hand.
Sposabella Wedding Gowns are imported from leading international bridal fashion houses and includes a multitude of styles. Get to the aisle in style
Our aim is to raise knowledge and transfer skills as a means to reduce poverty by creating mini enterprises .This aids skills development which uplifts rural communities by providing business opportunities, which m…
HaberdasheryCross StitchQuiltingNeedles
NeedleworkCross StitchQuiltingNeedles
DURBAN, KwaZulu Natal
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text:
Christopher William Kelly
- Filed Under
A fifth suspect has been arrested in Georgia in connection with an Iowa City robbery.
Iowa City Police announced in a press release that 31-year-old Christopher W. Kelly, of Iowa City, was arrested Tuesday in Smyrna, Georgia on warrants for first degree robbery and first degree burglary.
Kelly is being held in Georgia pending extradition back to Iowa, according to the release. ...


text:
Narrow your search
With Google's AdWords Express app for iOS or Android, small-business owners can create and monitor online ads.
The search giant has confirmed that mobile searches tower over those from computers in 10 different countries but was mum on more specific details.
Retooling aims to allow advertisers to manage bids for ads across a variety of device platforms as consumers increasingly turn to tablets and smartphones to access the Web.
High Court overturns lower court's ruling that found the Web giant in violation of trade laws for allowing companies to purchase AdWords related to competitors' names.
The Audiophiliac auditions the Spendor S3/5R2 speakers and Naim Uniti 2 CD player/amplifier.
Google owns about 55 percent of the search ad business, but it's still way ahead of its competitors -- despite Baidu's strength in the big China market.
Serious claims, made by FTC investigators, came just months before the commissioners decided against launching an antitrust suit against Google in 2013, according to documents obtained by the WSJ.
Developers will be able to buy ad space at the top of results so their apps pop up when users search for programs in Google's app store.
Ads promoting sexually explicit websites are no longer allowed on Google's ad network, which places ads across the Web.
Google's latest tweak to display ads will show you new app-download ads, as the company pushes advertisers to focus on mobile.


text:
The redesigned 2014 Mazda 6 is much more stylish than the outgoing model and stands out among the many redesigned midsize sedans.
- Filed Under
Driving the 2014 Mazda6 down I-89 through the sparse, hilly towns south of Burlington, Vt., I stopped for gas at the only station for miles. A kid in an older Mazda3 with a bumper sticker that read, "I void warranties" followed me off the highway, pulled up beside me, and rolled down the window.
"Hey, how do you like the new 6?" he asked, eyes darting across the surface of the car.
"It's awesome," I replied, fresh off 200 miles of twisting mountain roads, a grin still on my face. We chatted a bit more before he pulled out of the gas station and merged back onto the highway. I've been stopped by gearheads ...


text: Car Maker Gets $529M US Loan, Builds Car in Finland Claims money was all spent on US design work By Kevin Spak, Newser User Posted Oct 21, 2011 1:04 PM CDT STORY COMMENTS (81) (Newser) – Another Energy Department loan guarantee is coming under scrutiny. ABC News has discovered that the Obama administration doled out a $529 million guarantee to Fisker Automotive to build its new state-of-the-art luxury hybrid, only to see Fisker build the car in a factory in Finland. Fisker says there were simply no American factories that could do the job, but insists that the government's money all went to fund engineering and design work done in the US. Company founder Henrik Fisker says that if he'd built a factory "where it was too expensive," he'd fail, as Solyndra did. "We're not in the business of failing; we're in the business of winning … That's why we went to Finland." He adds that the government had signed off on the decision, so long as government money stayed in the US. But it's clearly not what the administration originally had in mind; Joe Biden announced the loan at a closed Delaware auto plant, promising new manufacturing jobs. The electric powereed Karma 1 by U.S carmaker Fisker, based in California, is displayed at the Paris Auto Show, during a press day, Friday Oct.1, 2010. (AP Photo/Francois Mori) Fisker Automotive's Fisker Karma, a sports luxury plug-in hybrid car, is shown at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show Thursday, Nov. 18, 2010, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) ADVERTISEMENT(Click Prev or Next to continue viewing images.) « Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow ABC News (Source Grid ») Politics • Green • Money hybrid car • Henrik Fisker • Fisker Automotive • Department of Energy • Obama administration • Energy Dept. • Solyndra SHARE YOUR TAKE: Check out another Scary story: Burger King Manager: 86 Minutes of Laquan Video Is MIA 18% 8% 4% 61% 7% 3% To report an error on this story, notify our editors.


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Topic: My buddy Mister Pounce!
A couple years back, my grandmother gave me a couple of those beanie babies (manufactured by Ty). One was a little cat by the name of Pounce, and the other was a dog (I forget its name). (She also gave me a cute little elephant, which wasn't a beanie baby.)
For the past couple months, I've gotten kind of attached to Pounce the cat! He's sort of become my "backpack buddy." I take him with me wherever I go, and he's a lot of fun to play with. I swear, he's almost like a little puppet without strings! He's got little floppy arms and legs that make him extremely poseable, and you can get quite a convincing illusion of expressiveness whenever you tilt his head from side to side. Plus, whenever I'm rocking out to one of my favorite songs, I make him play air guitar! I like to call him Mister Pounce, but sometimes I call him Cuddles, Kit-Kat, Floppy, Ears, Snookums...
Yeah, it sounds kind of pathetic, but Mister Pounce is actually kind of a good luck charm. He actually chills me out a little, and I feel just a tad less stressed. Yeah, I know that old cliche about putting away childish things once you reach a certain age, but I think you need to stay in touch with that aspect of yourself.
"The more complex the mind, the greater the need for play!" - Capt. James T. Kirk, Star Trek: The Original Series: Shore Leave
P.S. By the way, Mister Pounce's tenth birthday was just this last August 28th, so say "Happy Birthday" to Mister Pounce!


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Austin Wampler, left, is an outside threat for Stuarts Draft.
- Filed Under
Maddy Riley has a message for those who think Stuarts Draft girls' basketball may struggle this season.
There's good reason to believe the Cougars may suffer a drop off from past seasons. The Cougars lost five seniors, including three starters, from a team that advanced to the Region B, Division 2 tournament, but failed in an attempt to return to the state tournament for a second-straight season.
In addition to the players, Stuarts Draft lost its coach, Jason Kirby, who resigned to take a position in the Rockbridge County school system. ...


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To celebrate the launch of AW12 fashion we teamed up with two of the UK's hottest bloggers to bring you an exclusive trend feature with style tips, top fashion and more!
Natalie from Canned Fashion and Olivia from What Olivia Did chose some of their favourite products from our new season collection and each gave them their own individual twist.
Here's a little sneak peek of how the girls styled their products...
You can shop both Natalie and Olivia's top picks from our AW12 collection now.
Read the full feature now>


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Westlake Salon & Spa offers a complete menu of salon, spa, and beauty care services amid surroundings that encourage escape and relaxation. Using only the finest products available, our professional technicians and stylists provide a variety of services including massage, body treatments, skin care, facials, hair styling, manicures, pedicures, and waxing. Our goal is to provide you with an unforgettable experience of beauty and health that will leave you feeling rejuvenated and looking your best.
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Engulf smaller clouds to increase your cloud\'s size until you can create a massive downpour.
Heavenly Machine
Our beautiful rainbows are under attack by tiny devils of Gray Order. They are already at the doors of the Heavenly Factory!...
Jetpack Jerome
Reach for the stars in this charming arcade game featuring the smooth-talking Jerome (voiced by Alex Elliott)!
Bobbie Jumper
A boy named Bobby wants to take a look at the cosmos.
Green Cloud Fist Fury
You are the Legendary Green Cloud. The Raging Sun has come to Scotch the Planet. Save your good friend, Ms. Flower with...
Above the Clouds Jigsaw
Piece together three great pictures of flying above the sea of clouds
Cc2 - Keygames
Climb clouds and get as high as possible. How high can you get?


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Nusa Dewata means "Island of the Gods" in Bahasa Indonesian, which is appropriate because this 68' (stern to bowsprit), Indo-built, wooden sailing sloop is made for exploring islands that were designed by Gods who love surfers. For a limited time we are offering special prices from 10-15% off charter packages while spaces are still available.
The Nusa Dewata, which was built in 1992 and fully rebuilt in 2009 as an Indonesian charter vessel. Powered by the wind, and a 120 HP main engine, the Nusa Dewata cruises along at 6-8 knots. This is one of the prettiest Indonesian-built boats in the Mentawai fleet, comfortably accommodating groups of six maximum: perfect for small groups, families, father/son charters, long boarders and all-girl trips. The A/C rooms are large and comfortable with everything a traveling surfer needs to relax.
The Captain of the Nusa Dewata, Simon Dale makes extra effort to get passengers just where they want to surf, if the big name breaks are the desired locations, no problem, but if passengers want to move around to the lesser known breaks Nusa Dewata will get you there! Snorkeling, fishing and just relaxing are other great activities to pass time aboard the Nusa Dewata. The diving and fishing are world class with some of the most beautiful reefs filled with exotic fish.
If this sounds like a surf trip you might be interested in don't wait much longer to book, spaces are limited and dates will fill up quickly with a deal like this! Go there!


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- Filed Under
PORTLAND - William "Bill" Boughman, 74, a resident of Portland, passed away on Thursday, August 2, 2012 at I.U. Health Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie.
Bill was born on December 25, 1937, in Jay County, Indiana, the son of John Frederick and Mildred (Houser) Boughman.
He graduated from Portland High School in 1956. He was a veteran of the U.S. Navy and retired from the Portland Forge in 2000.
Bill was a member of the New Beginnings Holiness Church (formerly Blaine United Methodist Church) in rural Portland, Indiana. He was a member of the DeMolay from 1954-1956, the Portland Moose Lodge of Portland for over fifty years, the Masonic Lodge of Portland, the Shrine Band in 1984 and the Jay County Wayfarer. He was also a member of the Brass Image Band for thirteen years and the American Legion Comets Drum and Bugle Corp. from 1958 to 1963. He married Carolyn Sue Cottingham on February 23, 1962.
Survivors include his wife of fifty years, Carolyn Sue Boughman, rural Portland; one son, Wade Boughman (wife, Kerri), Yorktown; one brother, Max Boughman, Portland; two grandsons, Eli and Thadd Boughman, Yorktown; several nieces and nephews.
Funeral services will be 11:30 a.m. Monday, August 6, 2012 at Williamson and Spencer Funeral Home in Portland. Pastor Randy Smith will officiate and burial will follow in the Green Park Cemetery in Portland. Military graveside rites will be conducted by the American Legion Post #211 of Portland.
Visitation will be held 2-5 p.m. on Sunday at the Williamson and Spencer Funeral Home in Portland. A Masonic Service will be held at 5:00 p.m. on Sunday at the funeral home.
Memorials may be directed towards New Beginnings Holiness Church Memorial Fund. Envelopes are available at the funeral home.
Online condolences may be sent to http://www.williamsonspencer.com.


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Welcome to WebmasterWorld Guest from 188.8.131.52
Moderators: not2easy
Where would I go about finding people like this?
Writers' sites or webmaster sites such as sitepoint, geekvillage, etc?
Post a flyer in the history and english depts. of your local university. Offer to pay by the article, maybe $5 - $10 (after verification of unique work, which you have to do anyway). You will have more than you can use.
Where could I get hold of such people on-line?
I have tried a couple of history forums without much luck and they seem more to be frequented by history teachers, as opposed to students.
You may be able to get them to rewrite some of their content for your site or develop new material to use on your own site.
Become a Pro Member


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This restaurant and beer bar is a treat after a day of business or sightseeing in Cape Town. Apart from the awesome brews that are their signature trademark, they serve good hearty food in sizable portions and at competitive prices.
Here you can enjoy charcuterie boards that is bound to satisfy, delicious sandwiches and their smoky beef prego, straight from the barbecue.
Big, filling breakfasts are also on offer and offers a great start to any day. For the more refined diner, the salmon is a definite winner.
But it's not just beer. There is an extensive wine list that will not disappoint.
This laid-back beer bar and eatery, complete with ping pong table for entertainment, offers a 'real' experience in the midst of city madness.
This contemporary, stylish and vibey restaurant is situated in the popular Gardens Centre in Cape Town. The interior is sleek but warm and the ambience bustling. The restaurant has an inside and patio section and can seat up to 120 guests. The quirky 'cat' theme adds to the individuality and uniqueness of this trendy spot.
The menu offers something for everyone, good food and sizable portions at affordable rates. Late risers can enjoy the popular all-day breakfasts. The gourmet burgers and fresh seafood will also not disappoint. For the sweet tooth there is a variety of muffins and freshly baked homemade cakes on offer.
Blue Cat Cafe has become a popular meeting place for people from all walks of life and this flexibility and variety shines through in the atmosphere, service, detail and food.
This uber trendy restaurant and cocktail lounge is situated in the middle of the vibrant mother city and brings urban chic to life. Capello's offer a unique socializing experience topped with great service, trendy, creative cuisine and lavish cocktails.
The interior is relaxed, yet upmarket, simple, yet stylish, in perfect juxtaposition with its surrounds.
The menu, or should I say, menus, are extensive. Besides a great sushi menu that offers familiar favourites like sushi, nigiri, maki, fashion sandwhiches and more, Capello's also offers a great a la carte option.
Start the day with a great breakfast, have a pick on a light meal, fill your tummy with a gorgeous gourmet burger, a pizza, a giant steak or spare ribs, or a pasta or just simply relax with a meze platter and one of the cool cocktails. The white chocolate cosmopolitan is among the favourites.
If it is authentic Japanese cuisine you are seeking, this is your place. Fuji Yumi is located in the heart of bustling Cape Town on the corner of Loop and Church Street and specializes in contemporary and traditional Japanese food.
The seasonality of the menu definitely contributes to the quality of the dishes and only the freshest ingredients are used. Starters include old favourites like spring rolls, as well as the more contemporary Ostrich Tataki, briefly seared and thinly sliced ostrich with a vinegar sauce. Great miso soups, fried rice and a variety of salads are also on offer.
A delectable variety of sushi, sashimi, California rolls, rainbow rolls, fashion sandwiches and maki rolls can be enjoyed in the diner's preferred combination. Party platters can also be ordered ranging from 60 to 80 pieces of sushi, sashimi, Calfornia rolls and sandwiches.
The service is personalized and attentive and the invigorating space reflects this warmth. The restaurant also offers private rooms for special events, corporate dinners, birthday parties, and even private dining. Fuji Yumi is open from Monday to Friday for breakfast, lunch and dinner and on Saturdays for dinner only.
In the midst of the bustling Grand West Casino Complex you will find this gem of a restaurant and music venue, a calm respite from the outside hustle.
Jackson Hall is beautifully decorated and exudes a warm, casual, yet upmarket ambience. The leather couches invite you to relax and the fittings and finishes are a great mix between the modern and days gone by.
Jackson Hall serves light meals, but the simple menu does not disappoint. Try the delicious calamari crumbed in herbs and spices. For the hungrier diner there are burgers and awesome Italian-style pastas on offer. Dishes are very well priced and a light meal here is almost sure to suit the pocket.
Jackson Hall offers a variety of cocktails, perfect companions to the beautiful, ye olde jazz music constantly filling the background (or foreground for that matter).


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We created Pandora to put the Music Genome Project directly in your hands
It's a new kind of radio –
stations that play only music you like
Gordon Downie
Aside from his band duties, the new millennium saw Downie making time for a solo career. He worked alongside Skydiggers' Josh Finlayson and ex-Odds bass player Steven Drake, to complete and produce his first solo effort, 2001's Coke Machine Glow. Coke Machine Glow, which was also the title of his first book of poetry and prose, was recorded in Gas Station Studios and featured additional help from Barenaked Ladies' Kevin Hearn, bandmate Paul Langlois, and Don Kerr of Rheostatics. A second solo effort, Battle of the Nudes appeared two summers later. ~ MacKenzie Wilson


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Rochester's Rob Globke (18) collides with Binghamton's Lance Ward (24) in the Senators' 5-3 victory, in which Rochester lost a 3-2 lead after two periods.
- Filed Under
Cory Pecker is in his fourth pro season and already he has called six cities home.
But if his play on Sunday means anything, the shifty right winger should be staying in Binghamton.
Pecker scored two goals, including the game-winner late in the third period, as the Binghamton Senators defeated the out-of-energy Rochester Americans 5-3 at Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial. ...


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- Filed Under
In basketball, tempo is about willpower. After getting stifled for 30 minutes by slow-motion South Florida, the Rutgers men's basketball team upped the pace just enough to squeeze out a 70-67 win Thursday night.
In the process, the Scarlet Knights took firm hold of the wheel in their quest to make the postseason for the first time since 2006.
Rutgers (12-4) is now 3-2 in Big East play for the first time since 1999-2000. South Florida (9-7, 0-4) had a chance to force overtime on the final possession, but Martino Brock's 3-pointer from the left wing rimmed out at the buzzer. ...


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Jill Scott is a little tired of seeing music artists pretending to be something that they're not.
The Philly native recently sent a message to those who might want to project the lavish lifestyle that they're not yet living and encouraged them to enjoy what they do have and not fake about what they don't.
"What I see is trying to make sure that everybody thinks you have more than what you actually have," she explained to the DJs at New York's Power 105.1.
"What's the point if you actually don't have it? If you don't have it, then you don't have it. Have what you have. Enjoy that," she advised.
Jill didn't name any artists by name, but she said she's one who appreciates the art of the business, not necessarily the material gain that sometimes comes with it.
"The craft is everything," she said. "Don't be afraid of not being the wealthiest person in the room. Be the smartest person in the room. Be the slickest person in the room. Be the most creative person in the room. Be the most entertaining person in the room. Just be in the room," she said.
Jill talks about the two albums she's working on. Watch it below.


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- Filed Under
Man has searched for the Fountain of Youth for centuries. Haunted by our mortality, we have dreamed of mythical waters that would restore our youth and save us from our own destruction.
For a people so fascinated by the thought of longevity, we have become so careless with the way we live.
Still today, we are reaching for solutions to fix our unhealthy living. We say to ourselves, "If we can find a way to ensure that everyone has health care, that will make it better." ...


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Born in Koto Kecil, April 15th 1978. Graduated Bachelor in Electrical Engineering With Concentration in Information System and Computer of Gadjah Mada University, Jogyakarta, in 2004. He is a System Administrator, Computer Technician and Lecture at Polytechnic of Andalas University. But also as the temporary lecture in the University of Putra Indonesia, Padang. His core competence are on Software Engineering, E-Learning System, Multimedia and Website Engineering. Active as a writer article and tutorials which have been published in many portal in internet.
Rahmat Hidayat (NO.80342123) Member of International Association of Computer Science and Information Technology (IACSIT). The mission of IACSIT is to foster and conduct collaborative interdisciplinary research in state-of-the-art methodologies and technologies within its areas of expertise. IACSIT organizes conferences, workshop, and provides sponsor or technical support to conferences and workshops, it also publishes high quality academic international journals. IACSIT membership brings you access to the latest technical information and research, global networking and opportunities. And also member of the International Association of Engineers (IAENG) membership number is: 114306. IAENG is a non-profit international association for the engineers and the computer scientists.
The manager of several website like : Polytechnic of Andalas University (http://www.polinpdg.ac.id), Polytechnic of Kampar (http://www.poltek-kampar.ac.id) Magister of Management of Andalas University (http://mm.unand.ac.id) and College of Industrial Engineering Padang (http://www.sttind.ac.id).
Rahmat Hidayat had been selected to participate in the Webpage Design & Dynamic Webpage Design (WPDD) short course at Multimedia University, Malaysia under the Malaysian Technical Cooperation Programme (MTCP) 2007. In 2008 has been selected became Software Project Management: Emerging Issues, Islamic University of Technology, Bangladesh but can not attend. Rahmat Hidayat had been selected to participate in the Web-based Training E-Skills Tutoring for Elearning, E-Skills Elearning Management and E-Skills Elearning Management on the learning platform Global Campus 21® of Inwent. This program was implemented by the University of the Philippines Open University, sponsored by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development on behalt of the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Publication :


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The teen charged in the arson of the Lancaster County Courthouse last August won't be tried by local court officials.
Sixth Circuit Solicitor Doug Barfield said he won't prosecute Martavious Carter, 17.
Carter has been charged with two counts of arson for fires set at the 180-year-old courthouse, which was still being used as a court facility, and at Barfield's office across the street.
Barfield said 16th Circuit Solicitor Kevin Brackett will try the case.
The Lancaster Police Department has arrested 14 men and women on prostitution charges since December.
According to Lancaster Police Department incident reports, the department's crime suppression unit conducted the sting using a woman informant or an undercover officer.
The woman was propositioned by the men either in the parking lots of The Market convenience store or Market Street Seafood. In each case, the men offered money for sex, the report said.
The 10 men arrested in the sting were charged with solicitation of prostitution. Those arrested were:
Signs and posters of Barack Obama lined the streets of the nation's capital and complemented the red, white and blue banners to offer a true feel of patriotism.
Indian Land resident Fred Witherspoon was among the herds of people walking those streets, hoping to make it to the National Mall. He said the massive crowd made him feel like a sardine in a tight-fitting can.
Witherspoon said he vividly recalls those sights from his trip to Washington, D.C., where Obama was sworn in last week as the 44th president of the United States.
Artists will have their own studios to render new creations. College instructors will have more space to hold classes and the community will be able to attend workshops and exhibits that highlight local art.
That's the vision of Christina Chastain, a local artist hoping to open The Artisan's Center in downtown Lancaster. She's been working on the project for about two years.
But she needs funding to see her vision come true.
It was a twist of fate.
After winning the Miss Bronze America contest in 1962, Florence LaRue had to crown her successor, Marilyn McCoo.
While the two were posing for the typical beauty pageant photos in 1963, they caught the full attention of Jet Magazine photographer Lamonte McLemore.
Evidently McLemore, a would-be-singer, was impressed by LaRue and McCoo's talents and stage presence.
Some days, it pays to be in the right place at the right time. That's when you hit the jackpot, like I had just done on a hot summer afternoon.
Yes sir, my curious nature had turned into solid gold.
I was walking along the railroad tracks between Market Street and the Depot when some men slid open the big doors on one of those black warehouses.
Their actions got my full attention, seeing how I had never seen anyone going into one of those buildings before.
I always wondered what, if anything, was stored inside.
County Council may soon decide what to do with several seemingly worthless pieces of land.
Three parcels of land on the northern end of Pardue Street and at the back road of the Pardue Apartments have sat unused for years. The land sits in a floodway. During heavy rains, the nearby creek floods the area, making it useless for prospective buyers.
The land has been under control of the Forfeited Land Commission for the last three years, as that organization has tried to sell the parcels. Instead the land has remained in their ownership and accrued $5,215 in taxes.
Lancaster City Council is showing its support for the University of South Carolina at Lancaster, which Gov. Mark Sanford has proposed closing within two years in his budget.
City Council voted 6-1 Tuesday in favor of a resolution that asks Sanford to rescind his recommendation.
Councilwoman Linda Blackmon-Brace dissented.
She said she voted against the resolution because she wants information about Sanford's research and his reasoning before signing a resolution that opposes his plan.
During the winter, most homeowners are indoors, thinking little about their dormant lawns and yards. For this reason, the Lancaster Council of Garden Clubs selects a business as its January Yard of the Month.
This month, the lawn of the new Del Webb Library at Indian Land has received this honor.
Library director Richard Band is very proud of the new facility and landscaping that surrounds it.
The 11,000-square-foot library in Carolina Commons, the commercial center at Sun City Carolina Lakes, opened Jan. 5.
Pleasant Dale Baptist Church, 133 South Potter Road, will dedicate its new family life center during Sunday's 10:30 a.m. worship service.
Dr. Dale Roach, director of missions for Moriah Baptist Association, is the guest speaker.
Roach lauded the 300-plus member Pleasant Dale family for its dedication in completing the 15,188-square-foot facility. The family life center includes a kitchen, work-out rooms, a multi-purpose room that will serve as an interim sanctuary, a gym, a fellowship hall and a youth center. Ground was broken on the project in June 2005.
Copyright © 2015
The Lancaster News is your source for local news, sports, events, and information in Lancaster County and Lancaster, South Carolina, and the surrounding area..


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St. Pierre named svp of distribution services at Lionsgate
Danny St Pierre has been named senior vice president of distribution services at Lionsgate and will oversee day-to-day international distribution logistics and roll-out for Mandate International's titles as well as continued servicing of select films from Lionsgate's 12,000-plus library.St Pierre continues to report to executive vice president of post-production and delivery services Bob Wenokur and his promotion follows a strong market for Mandate International at AFM.
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VETERINARY SERVICES: Busy, small animal hospital in El Dorado is seeking a highly motivated, client-oriented veterinary tMore info
MANAGEMENT: Salina Bicentennial Center in Salina, KS, has an opening for a Director of Finance. Managed by SpecMore info
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HEALTH CARE: 2nd shift MT (ASCP/NCA/AMT) or MLT with generalist background to staff hospital lab from 3:00 pm toMore info
RESTAURANT - FOOD SERVICE: The Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Canteen Service is seeking a dynamic, energetic and cusMore info
SKILLED LABOR - TRADES: Seeking Journeyman plumbers, experienced or entry level. Resumes to: email@example.com or call 316-70More info
HEALTH CARE: MEDICAL RN, INPATIENT $5000 Sign On Bonus! Full Time Nights 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Requires 1 year hospiMore info
AUTOMOTIVE: Outside Parts Sales Heavy Truck Dealership interviewing for a full time outside parts salesperson. PMore info
GOVERNMENT: ROAD BRIDGE DIRECTOR - Pratt County is taking applications for the position of Road Bridge DirectoMore info
HEALTH CARE: RNs LPNs needed for WEEKEND patient visits. MUST HAVE PRIOR HOME HEALTH EXPERIENCE. Pay differentMore info
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Bob F.
In the UK postcards are officially between 90mm x 140mm and 120mm x 235mm. However... as they long ago abolished the special postal rate for postcards and they now go at the same price as normal letters, I assume we can send them up to letter size which is 900mm maximum length+width+depth. So theoretically, could send a 16"x19" postcard... ;)
Cheers, Bob.
Cheers, Bob.


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Waikiki, Oahu
My Rating
Amazing tour! Walter, our guide, was awesome. He gave us one of the best tours of Pearl Harbor we ever had. We especially enjoyed the Pacific Aviation Musuem Tour!!
Oahu, Hawaii
My Rating
Friendly, fun and professional. Very impressed with every aspect of the round trip transfer and lei greeting!! The lady who greeted us even took our picture at the airport with the leis!
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you got lazy by not having pixelated weapons.
I guess I'll start.
In 9th grade (9 yrs ago), I had a deathly boring math class. I was put in the back of the class, and the teacher only whispered in class.
Instead of falling asleep, like most of my classmates, I put my creative mind to work.
I had already long forgotten that I had drawn this, but when I was cleaning out my closet (To look for more stuff to sell, look at link in my sig ), I found this lurking in one of my many boxes.
This was at the time when all those virtual pets were so famous. I hated them, personally, although, it was a pretty interesting idea.
Well, here goes:
Please post what you guys have done in a boring class, if you have pics, feel free to share!
you got lazy by not having pixelated weapons.
I ran out of space, lol
**** u
naw man i dont swing that way sorry
OH, your stayin on the personal **** now, huh *****....
9th or 10th grade i had this really boring spanish class and it was the teachers first year so we did our best to break her in
One time I got a roll of masking tape off her desk (don't know what it was doing there in the first place) and i started making a tape ball. Whenever she would talk i loudly riped off another peice of tape to add to my orange/apple sized ball.
About halfway through the class a got bored with it and randomly chucked it at the teacher. It hit her square in the forhead. The class laughed so hard at her and i got kicked out for a while (sent my second home...the principals office)
ah the fun we used to have
-Jesus- King of Kings Lord of Lords
Speaking of spanish techers... we had this old spanish teacher from Argentina. She put WAY too much hair products on. So one day in 10th grade we were sitting in a circle, and a fly lands and starts nesting in her hair. Of couse she doesn't see, but everyone starts laughing uncontrollably
Oh, and this spanish teacher also couldn't say focus. She always said "****uss"
Is that virtual pet carrying a bloodied knife or a dirty dildo?
I pretty much survived through school on solitare, hearts, pinball, and photoshop/flash. I went through my entire chemistry class, went about half the time, and when I went to take the final (had to take it early) I had to find my syllabus to tell the secretary my teacher's name =P I got an A though.
Turns out I had/have ADD tho which may explain a lot And now medicated I am like superman lol
James Radcliffe
[email protected]
Planning (Phase I)
|||||++++++| 40% Making Final Pre-Purchase Plans
Car Stereo (Phase II)
|||||||||++| 80% - Building box, getting ready to wire
Carputer (Phase III)
||+++++++++| 10% Desiging CarPC case


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Gregory Bernard Favors
Position: LB-DE
Height: 6-1 Weight: 242 lbs.
Born: September 30, 1974 in Atlanta, GA
High School: Southside
College: Mississippi St. (school history)
Drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in the 4th round (120th overall) of the 1998 NFL Draft.
Weighted Career AV (100-95-...): 29 (3394th overall since 1950)
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Output includes all games from 1920 to 2015.