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|Art in Plain Sight: A Tale of Two Libraries
|Art - Feature Stories
|Written by Bruce Walters
|Monday, 04 July 2011 05:00
More than a century separates the opening dates of the most recent and the oldest public-library buildings in the Quad Cities. The differences between these buildings reflect our changing relationship to the environment, and their architecture reflects the evolution of the library from a symbol of culture to a community center.
Davenport's Eastern Avenue branch library (at 6000 Eastern Avenue) opened a year ago on July 10. The horizontal shape of the building and curved entrance relate to its surrounding environment, an open, grassy area of gentle rolling hills. The library has been designated by the U.S. Green Building Council as a Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) building. Its environmental features include a geothermal-heating and -cooling system, stormwater-management systems for the roof and parking areas, and energy-efficient lighting. Even the building materials were selected to ensure a healthy environment for the library staff and patrons.
At the library's entrance is a wall covered in sheets of bronze. The prominent position of the wall and its subtle patterning make it seem more like a minimalist sculpture than the means to drain water from the roof into the rain basin and bioswale. The bronze wall is set within a rain garden – planted with native plants and grasses, helping the water soak into the ground instead of running into the storm sewers. The ecologically conscious approach to the design of this building is remarkably different from the neoclassical design of libraries in the early 20th Century.
The Rock Island Main Library (at 401 19th Street in the Rock Island) opened on December 15, 1903. The building became the permanent home for a library collection that was established in 1855 and made public in 1872, making it the oldest public library in the state of Illinois. Funded primarily by Rock Island businessmen Frederick Weyerhaeuser and Frederick Denkmann, the building opened shortly before the Carnegie libraries in Davenport and Moline.
Originally called Rock Island's Temple of Literature, the building's fluted Ionic columns, exterior of quarried stone, and classical-styled ornamentation are indeed derived from ancient Greek and Roman temples. The dozen names incised in the frieze near the roof – from the Greek poet Homer to the American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne – say, in effect, that there is an unbroken link between us and the founders of Western Civilization.
One enters the main section of the building by ascending a flight of stone steps and passing through an imposing foyer. We literally rise higher when we come into this archive of knowledge. Though one is now greeted by collections of digital information – DVDs, CDs, and audiobooks – the interior architecture is formal, creating a very different atmosphere from the more welcoming and comfortable space of the newer libraries.
The Rock Island Main Library has had public meeting rooms and a children's collection of books – even an art gallery – from its inception. Yet this is a far cry from the community centers that libraries have evolved into. More than just lenders of books, libraries now provide Internet access and community rooms for a great range of not-for-profit organizations – from the Girl Scouts to senior groups, from choirs to quilters. When you are next looking for an a pleasant coffee shop, consider going to the library.
But are buildings art?
Frank Lloyd Wright, perhaps America's most renowned architect, certainly thought so when he stated, "The mother art is architecture."
Contemporary architect Richard Meier expanded on this by saying: "Architecture is the greatest of the arts, and it encompasses thinking that other arts don't even deal with. Like [the] relationship of the work to the individual human being – the person who uses it, the person who experiences it, the person who sees it, and how that person perceives that space."
Bruce Walters is a professor of art at Western Illinois University.
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Welcome to "Chronology," our annual roundup of the year's top stories.
Bad news for redevelopment properties
The city of Rocklin was faced with figuring out what impact the California Supreme Court's Dec. 29 ruling would have on allowing the state to kill redevelopment agencies in an effort to close the budget deficit.
"We are all disappointed regarding the Supreme Court decision," Mayor Brett Storey said. "We still have many issues that will need to be resolved."
Those issues included the status of properties purchased around town with RDA funds, including the site of the Rocklin History Museum on Rocklin Road, the library and the Big Gun Quarry.
City officials were disappointed with the ruling, since it did not give cities the option of keeping a redevelopment agency in some form.
"The properties that the city purchased with redevelopment intentions are still critical to the city," Storey said. "We hope that would be taken into consideration and not just simply sold off to the highest bidder."
In November, Rocklin lost its first round in the effort to save the Rocklin History Museum and St. Mary's Chapel from a state-mandated sale. At issue is the state's loophole clause allowing cities to retain properties that fit the definition of "government use." Rocklin's attempt to prove the museum on Rocklin Road and the chapel on Front Street were government buildings was denied by the state Nov 28. Rocklin City Manager Rick Horst is not worried and hopes to appeal the decision.
The city is required to hire an outside certified public accountant to audit the former Rocklin RDA's accounts, and present that report and a property management plan to the state. Then it's up to state officials to deny, approve or suggest changes to the plan. A final answer is expected from the state in April 2013.
Home burglaries riddle Rocklin
Residents were reeling from a spike in braze home burglaries sweeping the region.
"In the last quarter, we've seen a 20 percent increase in residential burglaries," said Rocklin Police Chief Ron Lawrence. "It's not just in Rocklin, but in Granite Bay, Loomis, Folsom and Citrus Heights."
Rocklin citizens reported 60 residential burglaries from Sept. 1 through Dec. 31, 2011. Clover Valley residents saw nine burglaries in the previous two years, including a Christmas Day burglary on Oakdale Lane in which neighbors reported the suspects fired guns in the house in an effort to get at valuables.
Lawrence said police believed residents were watching neighborhoods, looking for residents on vacation.
In response to the spree, Lawrence put more traffic officers on patrol in neighborhoods and is working with Roseville and the Placer County Sheriff's Office to compare lists of stolen property.
Rocklin family mourns 2-year-old boy
A Rocklin family lost their 2-year-old son, Evan Boungnasiri, Jan. 11 after he suffered from cardiac arrest and fell 8 feet from playground equipment at a Rocklin park.
He was the son of Amanda and Obee Boungnasiri and the grandson of Loomis residents Kathy and Ed Roser.
The community rallied for a fundraiser at the Flower Farm in Loomis that included live music and auctions, to help the family with medical and funeral expenses. A celebration of Evan's life was held at Bayside Church in Granite Bay, followed by a balloon release at Olympus Park in Roseville.
Amanda Boungnasiri said her son was 1 when he had surgery to repair congenital heart defects, including two holes in his heart and partial anomalous pulmonary venous return. She said he had fully recovered, but his heart apparently stopped working Jan. 3 just before he fell from a playground structure at Breen Park.
She said Evan received CPR immediately and defibrillation once paramedics arrived, but had no pulse for 14 minutes. He died eight days later.
Cinemark takes over Blue Oaks Cinema 16
Just over a year after the Rocklin opening of Blue Oaks Cinema 16, the business changed hands and its name.
Cinemark took over operation of the all-digital 3,000-seat multiplex, renaming it the Blue Oaks Century Theatres.
Blue Oaks Cinema opened in November 2010 under the ownership of family-owned Santa Rosa Entertainment. In an email newsletter to patrons, SR Entertainment stated, "We have enjoyed serving the Rocklin area and appreciate your patronage over the last year."
Details of the sale were not released. Movie-goers noticed the first change when the got to the box office – ticket prices had increased by 50 cents while admission for children ages 3-11 dropped 50 cents.
Rocklin gets out of affordable housing
Rocklin City Council members voted unanimously to approve a resolution transferring the affordable housing function of the former Rocklin Redevelopment Agency to the California Department of Housing and Community Development.
"There is really no upside to staying in this business and having this function," City Manager Rick Horst told the council.
Even though there were no new housing projects in the works, the city did maintain a First Time Home Buyers Program and assisted housing complexes for low-income residents with upgrades associated with the Americans with Disabilities Act and other needs.
"The state wanted it. They can have it," said Council Member Peter Hill. "It bothers me a lot – that the ability of our community to provide housing opportunities to a broad segment of the population is being damaged by this."
In many cases, people who took out loans through the city's housing programs will now have their loans serviced by the state.
Even with the affordable housing transfer to the state, the city remained on the hook for millions of dollars in debt associated with past affordable housing upgrades and work. To make matters worse, the city was also in default on a line of credit with Bank of America associated with nearly $3.5 million in affordable housing upgrades. The redevelopment agency legislation prohibits the city from refinancing the debt into municipal bonds.
Rocklin Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation were looking into the hacking of Rocklin City Council Member Diana Ruslin's email account.
"It is an invasion of privacy and it is terribly frustrating," Ruslin said.
The perpetrator reportedly blanketed Ruslin's contact list of friends, family and associates with an email describing a mugging in England. The email, which was also sent to the Placer Herald, described how Ruslin was in need of money to settle her hotel bill in order to catch a return flight to the U.S.
Ruslin was not in England, but instead at home in Rocklin when concerned friends began contacting her.
She was able to get her email provider to let her into the account so she could change her password, and then received professional help to check her computer and update spam and other filters.
Rocklin Police Lt. Lon Milka said the organized crime unit, possible in Europe, Africa or China, preys "on everyone, hoping that the naïve person will respond."
As the city of Rocklin drew nearly half a million from its reserves to balance the budget in fiscal year 2011, it also paid out $420,880 in banked vacation and sick time to its employees.
A Placer Herald review showed 142 of the city's 242 workers cashed in anywhere from 15 minutes to 419 hours in unused and banked leave time. City Manager Rick Horst explained that the city is required to pay it.
"When employees have years, if not decades, of service, the number will be higher," he said. "As employees opt to retire or as they are separated from employment, regardless of the reason, we are required to provide the appropriate payout."
The city had agreed to allow AFSCME, management, public safety management and confidential employee union members 12 sick days banked per year with no maximum.
Son arrested for murder of his father
Roseville police arrested Jon Michael Northam, 25, formerly of Lincoln, after a nine-month investigation. Northam's father, Christopher D. Northam, was founded murdered May 30, 2011, inside a Roseville sports complex where he had hoped to open the world's first "extreme skimboarding" park.
Northam Sr., a resident of Rocklin, had founded Skim X and the concept of Extreme Skim, an action sport that uses what looks like skateboard ramps with water flowing out the top, and specially designed boards that athletes use to hydroplane and perform tricks.
Neighbors of the business reported hearing a loud argument followed by gunshots shortly after 3 p.m. May 30. Lt. Mark Toupin of the Roseville Police Department said police believe Northam's son had been "lying in wait" and used a .223 rifle to shoot his father multiple times. The murder weapon had not been found.
Jon Northam's ex-wife, Averill Elizabeth Easley of Roseville, was charged with being an accessory to murder after the fact.
Media outlets from around the world and on the Internet were ablaze with stories about an outdoor anti-smoking ordinance in Rocklin.
After the Herald broke the story that a Rocklin resident had asked the City Council for an outdoor anti-smoking ordinance, Sacramento television news, the New York Daily News, CNN, the BBC and the daily Mail circulated the story.
City officials issued a press release decrying news reports about the ban as "misinformation."
"A citizen did step forward at our last City Council meeting and did ask us for an ordinance to ban outdoor smoking," the release said. "The city of Rocklin did listen and ultimately directed the citizen to the state of California Air Resources Board. There is no consideration of the issue and no study planned beyond the initial review of the citizen's request."
James Baker had approached the council in January, frustrated by his family's asthma and his smoking neighbors, who he said refused to stamp out their backyard cigarette smoking – just 30 feet away. Baker said his original request was to create a nuisance ordinance to protect citizens who are continually exposed to secondhand smoke against their will, asking the council for a $100 fine to be issued to violators.
City Manager Rick Horst said there were many questions to answer, including cost of administration and the likelihood of it being challenged by lawsuits.
Electronic billboards go up in Rocklin
Despite more than a dozen citizens voicing concerns, the City Council voted 4-1 to approve new LED billboards along Highway 65 and Interstate 80. Three old-style billboard on I-80 were to be removed as part of they city's agreement with Clear Channel.
Each new LED billboard was expected to be nearly 45 feet high with a 14-by-48-foot electronic advertising space that would change every eight seconds.
Council Member George Magnuson cast the lone dissenting vote, citing safety concerns for LED signs at Mercedes-Benz of Rocklin, which he said would be a distraction to I-80 drivers.
Concerns raised by citizens included light pollution, loss of open space and possible decrease of property values.
The city expected to see an estimated $100,000 a ear in new revenue from the deal.
Oak mitigation plan stirs debate
A week after the city made it known it was going to create an Oak Tree Planning and Management Plan, arborists were upbeat, but activists on both sides of the Rocklin/Loomis border were worried.
Ted Swiecki from Vacaville-based Phytosphere Research prepared the city's 2006 Urban Forest Report and identified a number of 80- to 150-year-old trees in Rocklin. The city could partner with Swiecki to review locations for preservation and where new trees could be planted. The plan was to develop a priority list, planting schedule and formulate a monitoring program.
Citizens for Tree Preservation member Elaine O'Deegan said the city's $1.4 million Oak Tree Mitigation Fund should be used to preserve, not replace, 100-year-old oaks.
'Miracle baby' born amid tragedy survives and thrives
Born three weeks premature and weighing 6 pounds, Elizabeth Rose Navyoks spent the first 10 days of her life hooked up to tubes and ventilators at Sutter Memorial Hospital.
Her mother, Kim Burgess, went into cardiac arrest during labor and could not be saved. Baby Elizabeth was born via an emergency caesarian section. She wasn't breathing when she was removed from her mother's womb.
After nearly four minutes, doctors got the newborn breathing with the help of a ventilator. She was later transferred to the pediatric ICU in Sacramento.
The family watched for 20 days until March 6, when Elizabeth was released on the birthday of her father, Robert Navyoks. The "miracle baby," he said, continued to thrive, gaining weight and health. Navyoks also continued his efforts to put his life back on track following the death of Burgess and the loss of his job.
The Rocklin community rallied true to form, collecting donations and setting up a saving account for the family.
"one of the wonderful things about this story is that this is a baby who will be deeply loved," said hospital Chaplain Lynn Gilbertson.
Denny Rush named Administrator of the Year
Parker Whitney School Principal Denny Rush was named Administrator of the Year by the Association of California School Administrators.
Under Rush' leadership, according to Rocklin Unified School District Superintendent Kevin Brown, the school saw continuous gains in every measurement set by district, state and federal regulations, and earned the 2012 Distinguished Schools designation by the California Department of Education.
"Getting this award doesn't happen in isolation," Rush said, acknowledging the "incredible team" at Parker Whitney. "This could be a real different story if it wasn't for all the things they do."
Profane calls interrupt Rocklin police channel
Rocklin police were trying to figure out who was responsible for a series of illegal and disruptive broadcasts over the police emergency dispatch channel.
Lt. Lon Milka reported dispatchers and officers in the field began hearing something out of the ordinary around April 18. A person, or people, he said, "have been getting onto our frequency using profane language and making vulgar noises."
Milka estimated there were about 10 instances varying in duration of up to 30 minutes, mostly taking place during the evening and night time hours.
Interfering with a police radio transmission is illegal under state and federal law.
Windy weather prevents hot air balloon drop at Rubber Ducky Festival
Inspired by the annual Great Sacramento Duck Race, local festival chair Jim Crosthwaite organized the Foothill Rubber Ducky Festival as a benefit for Rocklin Residents Unite for Fido and Rocklin's first off-leash dog park.
Supporters raised $2,000 by "adopting" rubbery duckys that were originally scheduled to be dropped from a hot air balloon floating 50 feet above Johnson-Springview Park. Winner were to be determined by how close their ducky landed to several targets.
But when windy conditions prevented the hot air balloon from taking flight, volunteers stepped in, turning their backs on the targets and tossing the entries.
"Plan B worked out just as well, just as fair for everybody," Crosthwaite said. "I think everyone had a good time with it."
Proposed budget shows city on the mend
The city announced the new fiscal year budget was projected to be balanced without the use of cash reserves.
Rocklin had been dipping into its own savings to the tune of $6.3 million since the recession started in 2007, according to the city.
The budget outlook indicated property taxes would remain flat, an overall sale tax increase of 6 percent and city revenue from the controversial electronic billboards could be as high as $75,000 once installed.
Horst indicated staff tamed the proposed budget deficit by not only cuts and reorganization, but also by focusing and reprioritizing existing expenditures, using technology advances and making maintenance budgets sacrosanct.
Since 2007, the city had reduced its workforce by 77 full-time employees. With attrition, early retirements and layoffs, city now employed about 224 full-time employees. Employees had taken pay cuts and unions were negotiating pension reform that would reduce benefits for new hires.
Horst expected the budget would see a reduction in overall personnel costs of $650,000 this year. He commended staff for making sacrifices and finding improvements, but warned the city might still face challenges as the economy recovers.
"Although the downturn appears to be at an end, the rate of economic growth has been slow and sporadic at best," he said. "On the whole, the city of Rocklin will need to fend for ourselves. The only help we can expect is the help we generate ourselves."
The city of Rocklin agreed to pay Rocklin Veterinarian Dr. Bikram Basra $131,556 a year to house Rocklin Animal Control's stray animals in town.
The previous control with Placer County cost the city $129,291 annually, with additional costs of $25,318 for staff time, vehicle maintenance and fuel costs to drive strays to the Auburn facility every day. The county had increased Rocklin's shelter fees by 290 percent since 2005.
"(It's) a big change and a tremendous opportunity in the way we shelter animals," said Rocklin Police Chief Ron Lawrence. "As a city with Animal Control, we pick up (stray) animals, but we have to have a place to put them."
In November, Lawrence said the existing 1,600-square-foot facility at Park and Sunset operated by Basra could not adequately house the increase or manage the required disease control necessary to maintain healthy animals and prevent the spread of disease.
To accommodate the animal increase, a new shelter with a larger capacity and more efficient design is needed, the city contends. Lawrence said the increased revenues from fees associated with the impounding, storage and release of animals went from an estimated $3,750 per year to an estimated $33,000.
Under the new contract unanimously approved by the City Council Nov. 13, the city will continue to pay Basra $131,556 a year to provide the shelter for Rocklin, but also give him the fees collected to construct the new 4,800 square-foot-facility design.
The new facility at 4357 Pacific St. is expected to open in January. Basra hopes a nonprofit status for what he calls the "Rocklin Animal Facility" will allow him to collect donations and volunteers to help the shelter.
Work planned for Rocklin Event Center
City officials prepared to spend $270,000 on a new retrofit of the Rocklin Event Center, formerly known as the Rocklin Sunset Center, on Sunset Boulevard. The name was changed in an effort to attract more event rentals.
Plans included remodeling of floors and walks, roof repairs and HVAC system changes.
Rocklin City Manager Rick Horst relocated Parks and Recreation Department offices, staff and activities to the old library building in Johnson-Springview Park in 2011 in an effort to clear the event center for gathering.
The proposed remodel came just a year after the city spent $271,847 on an outdoor patio area complete with a barbecue, gazebo, bandstand and fountain. Another $108,127 was spent to update the second-largest room at the center, which include a wall-sized accordion door for access to the patio and an updated video projector and sound system for the main hall. They also spent $30,083 updating the parking lot to meet Americans with Disabilities Act requirements.
The city hopes weddings and other events will offer the city another revenue source.
"Weddings are just one of the programs for which the event center may be utilized," Horst said. "Any festive event, family reunions, graduation parties, special events, etc. All of the above."
City Council members unanimously approved a $41 million balanced operating budget. They also adopted a new contract giving city employees a 1.5 percent cost-of-living increase.
The budget does not pull on cash reserves, but rather sets aside about $10,000 into reserves while maintaining a 25 percent general fund operating reserve.
Mayor Brett Storey proclaimed it a "wonderful budget."
In addition to millions in cost-savings measures, the city eliminated 77 full-time positions since 2007, cut salaries by 5 percent and instituted 13 staff furlough days per year.
"People all around the area, Elk Grove and Stockton, need to know that there are governments that can budget things and we have employees that work with us to help," said Councilmember George Magnuson.
The council also approved a three-year contract with the city's American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union that included a 1.5 percent cost-of-living increase, three fewer furlough days a year and no layoffs.
Rocklin interim chief fired up
Rocklin Fire Chief Bill Mikesell didn't officially retire until July 13, but before that he did everything he could to make the leadership transition as painless as possible for not only the public safety of Rocklin citizens, but also to alleviate stress on the 40 Rocklin Fire personnel.
Twenty-nine year veteran and Rocklin Fire Chief James Summers was named interim chief until the position can be filled permanently. Summers spent 26 years with Rocklin and was named battalion chief by Mikesell in 2006.
"This community has been a safe community, and (Chief Summers) will do everything he can to keep it that way," Mikesell said.
Summers was promoted to fire chief in August.
"Chief Mikesell has done a really good job of taking this department to the next level," Summers said. "I don't think there is going to be a lot of changes that have to be made."
Mikesell became Rocklin's fire chief after 28 years with the Vancouver Fire Department in Washington. He presided over the opening of Fire Station No. 3, the 2002 wildfire that burned 19 structures from Sierra College Boulevard and Interstate 80 to Granite Bay, the 2010 Galleria fire and last year's Lincoln train tanker fire, which forced the evacuation of parts of that city.
He is also an active volunteer, organizing the Christmas Basket Program, which provides coats and gift baskets for needy Rocklin family. He is a founding member of South Placer Rotary.
Big Gun Quarry earns its place in history
The California Granite Company, also known as the Big Gun Quarry, was added July 3 to the National Register of Historic Places.
The Pacific Street landmark was nominated by the Rocklin Heritage Committee. The listing include the quarry and surrounding lot, work sheds and even the Ruhkula saw once used at the site.
"Everyone in our group is absolutely elated and ecstatic that we've been able to save the quarry and get it listed on the national register," said Heritage Committee spokesperson Carol Ellis. "It's the reason Rocklin is called Rocklin."
It is the first Rocklin site to be listed on the National Register of Historic Person.
Firefighters return from Robbers Fire
Hiking with 50 pounds of fire hose in 100-degree temperatures over rough and steep terrain doesn't sound like a walk in the park, but it's what Rocklin firefighters fighting the Robbers Fire in the American River Canyon between Foresthill and Colfax were trained to do.
"It's long days," said Fire Capt. Robert Molinaro. "We start at 7 in the morning until 7 the next moring."
A brush crew of three from the Rocklin Road station spent nearly a week with 2,000 other firefighters from Cal Fire, Placer County and as far away as Los Angeles County. They spent their first night protecting threatened structures.
"It is important that we can help our neighbors because if we ever had a big incident like this in Rocklin, we would definitely need assistance," said interim Fire Chief James Summers.
City fights to save buildings from state-mandated sale
For the first time since the state abolished Rocklin's Redevelopment Agency, Old St. Mar's Chapel on historic Front Street was threatened.
The 1883 building was purchased, in part, with funds from the former RDA and the state announced it wants the city to sell the building. The historic building was moved from its original location in 2005 and remodeled to be used for public events.
Since RDA funds were involved in the remodel, the state doesn't want the building – it wants the cash.
A provision in the new state law governing the RDA transition allows the city to hold onto properties designated for public use, but in November the city learned the church did not meet the criteria. Along with the chapel, the Rocklin History Museum also did not meet the criteria, while the Rocklin Library did.
The city had hoped to get all three properties initially approved to test the process to try to save the Big Gun Quarry.
"We thought we had a good chance at the quarry," said Mayor Brett Storey. "It certainly wouldn't have (been saved) this way. We know that know."
The city is now required to hire a certified public accountant to audit the former RDA's accounts and present that report and a property management plan to the state. Then it's up to state officials to deny, approve or suggest changes to the plan.
Police seek suspect in random shootings
Several apparently random shootings shocked residents in Rocklin and Loomis.
Rocklin resident Al Aceves, whose Key Court home was shot up, called the shooters cowards.
"This is a heinous act and it shouldn't be happening," he said. 'They are cowards. They have not value for life."
The shootings took place in the area of Sunset Boulevard and Fairway Drive, Aceves' home, and at the Shell station on Taylor Road in Loomis.
Aceves' wife and adult daughter were in the family room when a bullet came through the kitchen wall.
A physics teacher at Whitney High School was arrested Sept. 17 after Rocklin police officers received information regarding an unlawful intimate relationship between the teacher and a juvenile student. He was arrested for child molestation and for arranging a meeting with a minor for purposes of committing a lewd act.
Matthew Yamamoto, 33, now faces 11 counts, seven of which are felonies, for alleged crimes against two minor girls, including unlawful sexual intercourse. Yamamoto, who pleaded not guilty to the charges, was remanded back into custody in November after his bail was increased to $500,000. In requesting the increase, Deputy District Attorney Stephanie Macumber explained to Judge Mark Curry that despite a restraining order obtained by the parents of one of Matthew Yamamoto's alleged victims, the former Whitney High School physics teacher and the girl, referred to as Jane Doe 2, reportedly exchanged almost daily emails.
According to court records, Yamamoto had allegedly been spending "an inordinate amount of time" with Jane Doe 1, his teacher's assistant, including nighttime stargazing dates. But when her parents found out, they were no longer allowed to be together alone. Meanwhile, Jane Doe 2 had entered Whitney High as a freshman and Yamamoto eventually became her math tutor.
According to the report, the two eventually started communicating online, via text message and in person during and after school. In May 2011, when Jane Doe 2 was a junior, the relationship reportedly consisted of secret meetings outside of school. It allegedly became physical, and during one sleepover Yamamoto allegedly painted the student's toenails.
"However, during the course of Jane Doe #2 and defendant's relationship," the report reads, "Jane Doe #2 did make a disclosure to a good friend that the relationship was, in fact, sexual."
Yamamoto will next appear in court at 8:30 a.m. Monday, Jan. 14, in Department 32 for his preliminary hearing.
Rocklin city planners want a new freeway on and off ramp on Highway 65 at Whitney Ranch Parkway and they're willing to give developers a break to get it done sooner rather than later.
An amended development agreement is in the works between the city of Rocklin and Whitney Ranch developers that could affect funding for a new fire station, eliminate a proposed community center and turn part of a community park into a housing development.
According to a report presented to the City Council, the city's ultimate goal is the "restructure of priorities supporting the Whitney Ranch Interchange project."
City planners point to the depressed housing market, a global recession and unprecedented local economic pressures as a reason to "concentrate resources on elements that prove to be mutually beneficial to the city and Whitney Ranch."
For the city, the agreement is about more than stimulating a depressed housing market. An estimated 4,000 new jobs could be created from potential commercial developers eyeing 200 acres in Whitney Ranch who are put off by the lack of freeway access, according to the city.
On the bargaining table from the existing agreement is the developers' obligation to pay an $800,000 fire station fee, $500,000 for design of a Whitney Ranch Parkway Interchange and $2.5 million for completion of the interchange after construction, as well as $3 million toward an estimated $15 million community center at Whitney Ranch Community Park.
Now the city is willing to defer or eliminate those obligations to get $4 million in 2014 and 2015 toward construction of the interchange, enhanced bike trails and extending West Oaks Boulevard to Whitney Ranch, among other priorities.
Parks and Recreation Department reorganized
With more than $1 million cut from its budget since the recession began, Rocklin's Parks and Recreation Department was once again the target of cuts and reorganization. The department director position was eliminated and the department is now under the umbrella of another city department, according to the city.
In August, City Manager Rick Horst announced to city staff the Parks and Recreation Department would be dissolved into the Public Services Department. The director of Parks and Recreation, Gordon Holt, was on administrative leave pending his retirement, according to Horst, who declined to elaborate.
"The Parks and Recreation program remains intact," Horst said. "There has been no change in program or service levels. The only change is that the department is now considered a division – a division of the Department of Public Services under the broad oversight of Rick Forstall, director of Public Services."
Last year, the city laid off three Parks and Recreation employees, eliminated summer swim lessons and Station Extreme, the after-school teen program. Recreation staff was moved from the Rocklin Event Center to a newly remodeled community center at Johnson-Springview Park.
City to split Big Gun Quarry property
Historical community members were not satisfied with the latest plan to partially save the Big Gun Quarry on Pacific Street from a state-mandated sale.
The new Property Management Plan presented to the City Council for consensus would split the 7.2 acre site, recently placed on the National Register of Historic Places, into three parcels. The city hopes to save parcel one, the quarry pit, which is designated for public use, and parcel two, a landlocked parcel behind Memorial Park.
The third parcel along Pacific Street, including the century-old work sheds, is designated for sale to a potential buyer.
Rocklin Heritage Committee member Gene Johnson wanted the city to submit all three parcels to ask the state to save everything.
'I thought we were going to save the part with the buildings on it," Johnson told the council. "I think a good case could be made that the entire property should be transferred to the city. If it were transferred to the city, at that point, we would have everlasting control on what happens to the property."
Mayor Brett Storey said the current proposal is the best option.
"I understand what you're saying, and I think the council does, but I don't personally think that is the case," Storey said. "That is not what the state is interested in. The state is interested in cash. We're trying to save the site as best we can."
By consensus the council directed city staff to move forward with the plan as recommended. According to city officials, a final vote can not be done until the State Department of Finance finishes a scheduled audit on Rocklin's former Redevelopment Agency, abolished earlier this year by the state Legislature.
Janda, Magnuson, Butler win election
The next three members of the Rocklin City Council are Greg Janda, Dave Butler and George Magnuson.
Janda led the field of eight candidates with 21.79 percent of the vote. After Janda came in third for two seats in the 2010 election for council, he said he made a long-term commitment to run again. This time around, the contenders for the three seats on the council were Janda, Butler, Magnuson, Wijaya Perera, Julie Millard-Stadel, Ken Broadway, Dan DeFoe and Jack Lento-Edrich.
"I am humbled by the overwhelming support I received all across Rocklin," he said. "I can't thank my volunteers and supporters enough for the time and dedication they provided."
"I am grateful for and humbled by the support my campaign received," Butler said in a statement to the Placer Herald. "I am looking forward to the opportunity to serve Rocklin residents and advance our community's objectives, particularly in the area of economic development."
A Rocklin man was arrested for allegedly beating an 84-year-old man in a road rage incident.
Rocklin Police reported that 33-year-old Zubin Bogdanoff allegedly followed 84-year-old Eugene Royer to his Roseville home Nov. 10, where an assault occurred in the victim's garage.
"The defendant followed him home because he felt the victim was driving too slow," Bill Marchi of the District Attorney's Office said at Bogdanoff's arraignment. Royer was driving 20 mph, Marchi added.
At the time of the incident, Royer was driving on the 6000 block of Bridal Veil Drive, a residential area, according to the Rocklin Police Department report.
Royer suffered significant injuries and was taken to the hospital, according to the Rocklin police report. A neighbor who tried to intervene was also injured, police said. And as Bogdanoff drove off, he is alleged to have tried to run over a witness who was calling the police, the report said.
Bogdanoff faces 10 counts against him in two cases, including inflicting injury on an elderly adult, assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury, residential burglary for entering Royer's home, assault with personal use of a deadly weapon (his vehicle), another assault charge, vandalism, disturbing the peace by fighting and two battery misdemeanor charges.
Bogdanoff was also cited earlier on a petty theft charge and released on a promise to appear after a disturbance Nov. 7 inside a Roseville supermarket.
He'll next appear in court Jan. 8.
Scouts, media descend on City Council
The city of Rocklin is trying to work out a deal with nonprofit groups concerned over a policy change that would charge scouting groups and other nonprofits for use of city buildings for meetings. Groups are concerned they could be charged $90 per hour for building use.
Boy Scout Troop 29 has been meeting in the Community Center at Johnson-Springview Park since it was constructed in 1976.
"It has always been this troop or pack has gone to the city and asked them if we can use the building for free and they always said yes," said Troop 29 Scoutmaster Jeff Sherer.
The city formed an ad hoc committee after a crowd of upset scouts and their parents packed a November City Council meeting. The controversy got a lot of media attention, as the Placer Herald was joined by three Sacramento television stations in covering the story.
According to City Manager Rick Horst, the city has granted what he describes as a "stay" from the proposed April 1, 2013, start of the fees to work something out.
Sherer said Horst offered the scouts a modular building currently used for senior recreation programs. Sherer would still have to pay about $25 an hour. That's better than the $5,000 to $15,000 originally estimated to cost the organization for a year of meetings at the current rental rate. Even so, Sherer said, it's still too much.
"He wants to charge everyone the same, so that's where the rate is," he said. "The one thought is could the scouts do a service project to work off that $25? Could we plant some trees or something?"
The groups are to meet with city officials again next month. The recommendations of the committee are expected to be presented to the Rocklin City Council early next year.
City on track to silence trains
The Rocklin City Council took a step closer to establishing a railroad "quiet zone" in the city when it added improvements at five railway intersections to its list of projects to be completed during this fiscal year.
The city will install center medians at the crossings at Farron Street, Rocklin Road, Midas Avenue, Americana Way and Dominguez Road that, at 8 inches high, are meant to prevent drivers from ducking under the lowering arms to turn around as a train approaches. Other safety improvements include installing a warning sign at the Americana Way crossing and Americans with Disabilities Act-standard tactile warning strips at sidewalk crossings at Americana, with future strip installation planned at Del Mar and Farron.
The project will be paid for with Public Transportation Modernization, Improvement, and Service Enhancement Account funds from the California Department of Transportation. The project will be put out to bid and come back to the council for approval. A portion of the funds must be spent by July 2013; the next by 2014.
Trains will still blow their horns when the conductor feels there is a safety risk such as pedestrians or railway workers at the intersection. But for the majority of the time, horns will be prohibited in the quiet zone.
The quiet zone was met with some opposition.
Kenneth Rogers, a former Southern Pacific and Union Pacific employee for 45 years, was involved in a collision in Loomis that killed two people. The horns, he said, are part of the whole package of warning people about a coming train – including flashing lights and lowering gates.
"We've had a great run" Rogers said. "We're at almost 30 years with no reportable accidents. That's not luck. That's compliance with the law. That's the crossing gates and the sounding of the horn. It's a loud horn – believe me – and it gets people's attention."

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Germans, Poles and Jews
The Nationality Conflict in the Prussian East, 1772 - 1914
by William W. Hagen
Publ. 1980 by University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-31242-9
Minor changes and notations to the text have been made to make it easier to understand. In particular, references to centuries have been changed to numeric, e.g. "eighteenth century" to "1700's")
In rough terms, these are the areas referred to (in respect to 1800's borders, and relative to Posen province)
Great Poland
= west-central Poland, essentially Posen
Royal Prussia
= West Prussia, the Danzig corridor, north of Posen. Poland's access to the North Sea.
Netze district
= the watershed of the Netze | Notec river, which flows westward through the top of Posen
Vistula district
= the watershed of the Weichsel | Vistula river, which flows northward through eastern West Prussia
= south of Posen
(Previous material to this excerpt dealt with early migrations to the Polish/German frontier lands and the degree to which various German communities became 'Polenized'.)
"Thus, in contrast to Great Poland, a sizable proportion of the medieval German colonists' descendents preserved their German ethnic character in Royal Prussia through the long period of Polish sovereignty. In both Great Poland and West Prussia, however, it was not the medieval wave of German and Jewish migrations alone which determined the character of the eighteenth century nationality frontier. From the late 1500's to the time of the partitions (late 1700's), a second wave of settlers from Germany swept over western and northern Poland.
The pioneers of this movement were not Germans but rather large numbers of Dutch Mennonites who, menaced in their religion at home, accepted the offers of the Protestant West Prussian nobility to settle as free peasants in the Vistula delta. (The Vistula | Weichsel river bends northward at Bromberg and flows through the eastern side of what was West Prussia in the late 1800's to Danzig.) In return, the immigrants built dykes to control the river channels and paid money rents to the noble lords owning the once-swampy wastes which they had converted into rich farmland. This was the beginning of a movement, running parallel to the rise of the serf-estate export economy on the already cultivated soil of Poland, in which the szlachta (Polish nobility) encouraged peasant immigration from the west in order to bring the vast stretches of Poland's still virgin forest and swampland under the plow. Unwilling to commit their own serf labor to this task, they offered attractive terms and religious toleration, at first to the Mennonites but thereafter mainly to German Protestants who fled, in the 1600's, religious persecution in Germany and, in the 1700's, military conscription and regions of land hunger to try their luck in Poland. They and their descendents constituted a privileged class of peasants among the masses of Polish serfs. They would not undertake their arduous new lives without guarantees of full personal freedom, ample fields in the wastes they had cleared, and a hereditary contractual claim to their lands in exchange for money rents. These terms of tenure were almost precisely what most Polish and Polonized serfs lacked but hungered to have. Yet, just as it was in the szlachta's interest to subject the native peasantry to serfdom and thus to create a supply of "free" labor producing for the export (grain and timber) market, so too, if foreign colonists could make a profit from previously unused land, by settling them on their estates the nobility could skim the top from theese profits and fatten their wallets.
This form of peasant colonization spread down the Vistula Valley, into the Netze | Notec' region, and beyond to Great Poland proper, where in the 1600's and 1700's it was vigorously pursued not only along the western fringes of the province adjacent to Silesia and Brandenburg, but in the heart of the land as well. After the partitions, the Polish nobility in Russian Poland began settling German farmers on their land, so that this second wave of German colonization, following upon the medieval movement, lasted into the early 1900's. In Royal Prussia and Great Poland such German colonists came to be called 'Haula"nder', a corruption of the word Hollander, recalling the Mennonite pioneers; the Poles accepted the term in the form of 'oledrzy'.
There was an urban counterpart, beginning in the second half of the 1600's and lasting through the1700's, to the second wave of German peasant settlement in western and northern Poland. The devastation wrought in these regions by the Swedish invasion (1655-60) and particularly by the second Northern War (1700-21), whose impact on Great Poland can be compared with that of the Thirty Years War on Germany, depopulated the towns as well as the villages. Since the nobility had succeeded in imposing their seigneurial authority on many of the towns, urban economic collapse meant a loss of aristocratic revenue. Thus in the 1600's and 1700's the Catholic gentry opened many town gates to Protestant German refugees, especially from Silesia, and to German Catholic immigrants as well. In 1700s' Great Poland, immigrant burghers rebuilt fifteen devastated towns and founded ten wholly new cities. In these and other towns throughout Great Poland, the Netze district, and Royal Prussia, a flourishing woolen and linen textile industry arose in the 1700's. This was the work primarily of German artisan workshops. It was organized commercially by the Jews and profitably taxed by the nobility.
Unlike their medieval forerunners, most of the settlers in the second wave of migration to Poland retained their German language and cultural character. The guarantees of religious liberty the German Protestants received from the Polish nobility, though sometimes violated, ensured the maintenance of a German-speaking clergy, German Protestant village schools, and a few secondary-level German academies. As in the past, German Catholics were more exposed to Polonization, but they were a minority among the immigrants. They maintained their ethnic identity best in the towns of a predominantly German Protestant character along the Silesian-Brandenburg border, where the Polish Catholic church's influence was limited. One may speculate, in the light of later historical experience, that, outside those towns where church practice neglected German-language services and thus wittingly or unwittingly promoted Polonization, German Catholics assimilated into Polish culture chiefly by means of intermarriage, which was comm both before and after the partitions.
In the wake of the two long waves of German eastward settlement and medieval Jewish migration to Poland, reinforced by Jewish refugees from Germany during the Reformation, the 1700's nationality frontier cut deep into the Polish Commonwealth. On the Silesian-Brandenburg border of Great Poland, second-wave Germans had reinforced first-wave survivors in Germanizing a broad frontier strip. Settlements of Haula"nder were scattered about the Poznanian villages, while Germans and Jews were numerous in all western and northern Polish towns. The Polonization of Royal Prussia after the fifteenth century had been balanced by second-wave German peasant colonization in the Vistula delta and the rise of the German-dominated textile industry in Royal Prussia, the Netze district, and Great Poland.
But the nationality frontier also crossed the political borders of Brandenburg-Prussia. In Upper Silesia, conquered together with the rest of that province by Frederick the Great, a large population of Polish-speaking peasant-serfs tilled the lands of German or Germanized Slavic noblemen and magnates. Polish was spoken among the common people in the towns as well. In central Silesia to the east of the Oder, Polish villagers and urban workers also survived in a largely Germanized setting, but most of Silesia had been lost to the Poles in the first wave of German eastward expansion. In 1348, Casimir the Great had recognized Bohemia's suzerainty over the Silesian duchies and, despite Polish strategies to regain the province in subsequent centuries, it was progressively integrated into the German political and cultural sphere as it passed from Bohemian to Habsburg to Hohenzollern rule. The Polish population in Silesia stood on an economically and culturally depressed level, speaking only a Polish dialect, out of contact with formal Polish culture and dominated by a Catholic clergy which, while it communicated to its parishioners in their own tongue, bowed to the German Bishopric of Breslau."


text:
Name: Julia Dault
Age: 35
Occupation: Artist
City/Neighborhood: Clinton Hill, Brooklyn
Your current exhibition at Jessica Bradley in Toronto includes paintings on vinyl, pleather, drawer liner, and other unconventional materials. What attracts you to these types of surfaces?
I like the notion of thwarting one's own good taste or of finding balance between the beautiful and the hideous. Costume pleather, vinyl, printed denim, fluorescent spandex — these substrates also give the work commercially produced "found" color that is revealed through my painting process. I use tools (combs for texturizing plaster, door handles, paddles) instead of brushes because they restrict my mark-making, making it traceable, anti-illusionistic, and self-evident—less about my need to convey an emotional state and more about my wanting to provide the viewer with indexical information. Sometimes I'll cut "windows" into the materials to reveal what's underneath in an effort to achieve utmost transparency. It's "what you see is what you see," yet, ideally, the sum of the painting's parts supersedes what one knows to be true. Ultimately, I can never predict the exact effect of paint plus tool plus, say, costume pleather or overstock Hawaiian-print silk, and it is this infinite possibility and surprise — within the strictures of tool and surface — that I find enlivening.
Part of what makes your sculptures so interesting is how delicate and precarious they seem. How difficult are they to assemble, and do they ever come apart?
I build with rules: no advance planning, no assistance, no cutting or trimming, no drilling or gluing. All of the forms are bent and tethered by me in the space where they'll be shown. The sheets of mirrored Plexiglas, the Tambour, the sharp-edged Formica — they can all be unwieldy. But part of what I'm after is pitting my physical (and aesthetic) sensibilities against the properties and characteristics of the materials I work with. It's me versus the materials, with the titles referring directly to the date and duration of the piece's construction. The installed sculptures haven't yet come apart, though another of my rules is that if they were to suddenly break free during an exhibition, then that would be that. I imagine it would be a scene of devastation: some odd montage of noose-like Everlast straps dangling from the wall and splayed sheets of color on the floor. In fact, though they look quite precarious, they are securely insecure.
Your works, especially the sculptures, seem to be in part a reaction against Minimalism — especially the Finish Fetish artists of Southern California. Is there an artist or movement that has been especially important to your development?
I'll never shake my devotion to the minimal aesthetic, yet embedded in my practice is a critique of phoned-in fabrication, the notion that the maker and the making can be divorced. I equate my aesthetic to a dirty Minimalism, arguably the exact opposite of Finish Fetish work. The scrapes or bumps that can occur while making the sculptures (or that pre-exist when I use salvaged materials) are a form of embodied knowledge, evidence of the presence of the maker. At the same time, I'd never let process reign. What I'm after is a balance between a transparent process and an undeniably seductive final form. This balance applies to the paintings, too. My interest in anti-illusionism and transparency leads me to try and make it possible for viewers to retrace the steps of each painting's materialization.
What project are you working on now?
A few things: I've been working toward two simultaneous solo exhibitions that will open in Zurich (with Galerie Bob van Orsouw) and New York (with Harris Lieberman Gallery) during the first week of the fall season. I'm also about to begin a print edition with the Brodsky Center for Print Innovation at Rutgers, and am working on a few other projects that I have to remain hush about.
What's the last show that you saw?
"Inventing Abstraction" at MoMA.
Describe a typical day in your life as an artist.
I wake up very early; read the paper with breakfast; walk to the studio; work all day, stopping only for lunch; go to the gym; go home; have dinner with my husband; read; and go to bed early. If a friend has an opening, I'll stop painting a little earlier to attend.
What's the most indispensable item in your studio?
My stapler.
Where are you finding ideas for your work these days?
Because I paint using a variety of tools on a number of different surfaces, many of my ideas come from browsing the aisles of hardware stores (for tools) or strange, suburban craft stores (for fabrics). But, more generally, ideas come from everywhere: music, the subway, fashion, the news, reading, conversations, patterns…
Do you collect anything?
At one point I was collecting mugs (favorites: GOOD GIRLS GO TO HEAVEN, BAD GIRLS GO TO AMSTERDAM, and my Michelle Obama mug), but we recently moved and decided to shed most of our possessions. Of course, I'll never stop collecting tacky fabrics, but those are kept at the studio.
What is your karaoke song?
Karaoke is not part of my vocabulary.
What's the last artwork you purchased?
A photograph by the Canadian artist Paul Butler.
What's the first artwork you ever sold?
An untitled painting, which, in retrospect, I realize was an early iteration of what evolved into my use of tools, instead of brushes, for mark-making.
What's your favorite post-gallery watering hole or restaurant?
Low-key places: Westville, in Chelsea; An Choi on the Lower East Side.
Do you have a gallery/museum-going routine?
Many Friday evenings I go to the Met to draw, mostly in the Greek and Roman galleries.
What's the last great book you read?
"Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides.
What work of art do you wish you owned?
Roy Lichtenstein's Brushstroke, 1965, in the Tate Gallery.
What would you do to get it?
Tattoo it on my forearm.
What international art destination do you most want to visit?
What under-appreciated artist, gallery, or work do you think people should know about?
Michael Dopp, a Los Angeles–based abstract painter whose work I saw in Miami.
Who's your favorite living artist?
Changes all the time, but right now Carmen Herrera.
What are your hobbies?
"Supper Clubbing" with friends. We drive out to the suburbs — Long Island, northern New Jersey — to eat at off-the-beaten-path restaurants.


text:
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text:
Smith proud of Proteas triumph
Keep up to date with England's Investec Test Series against South Africa with our in-depth day-by-day reports - plus all the reaction, highlights and photos
Skipper Graeme Smith ranks South Africa's Investec Test series victory over England as one of his greatest achievements in cricket.
The Proteas leapfrogged their hosts to the top of the International Cricket Council rankings after a 51-run win at Lord's completed a 2-0 success in the three-match rubber.
Smith was at the helm in 2008 when the Proteas successfully toured England but, with Andrew Strauss' side's formidable record at home since then, the 31-year-old believes this time around was all the more special.
"For us to come back and do it again is a better feeling for me," he said. "It's hard to replace some of those moments from 2008, but we came here knowing England were number one in the world and an outstanding cricket team at home in these conditions.
"They have performed well in Australia and I know they struggled against Pakistan in the sub-continent, but in these conditions they were going to be an outstanding team. For us to beat them at home is one of the greatest achievements of my career and I am proud of each guy.
"There were contributions all across the board; there wasn't just one or two individuals that carried us. Everyone stepped up when they needed to and, in this Test match in particular, there were different people who contributed.
"The hundred from Hashim (Amla) was outstanding, the tail-end partnerships, the efforts with the ball and the catching was great."
Smith' focus is now on maintaining high standards to ensure South Africa don't slip from top spot.
Asked which achievement ranked the highest, beating England or rising to the Test summit, he said: "I think it's the initial achievement of coming to England and winning 2-0.
"We have been here for a long time and to maintain the high standards from the first warm-up game to now has been a great achievement from the management and the players.
"Initially it was just to get over that emotion of winning, but to get to number one, which is what we have pushed for for a while, I think tonight and the next couple of days is for us to enjoy that.
"The challenge is the same challenge as it was for England. We need to have a strong enough base so when the wind blows, it doesn't blow us over. Hopefully we can maintain these standards for a long period of time."
Smith struggled for form and had an ankle injury to recover from prior to this tour, but bounced back emphatically with 272 runs, including a century on his 100th Test appearance.
"From a personal perspective, last year was extremely tough. So to come back like I have, to perform well here and have these milestones means a lot," he explained. "You have got to let your cricket do the talking and I always knew that was going to be the case.
"I need time to reflect on these achievements, but to be the person to put South Africa in the space with so many wonderful cricketers and names is something I am certainly very proud of."
England were always up against it today, losing two early wickets as they began to chase down 346 to level the series and retain their place at the Test summit.
After Jonathan Trott and Jonny Bairstow contributed half-centuries, Matt Prior threatened to get his side over the line with partnerships of 62 and 74 with Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann.
However, Vernon Philander returned with the new ball to remove the wicketkeeper-batsman and Steven Finn in successive deliveries to claim his seventh Test five-wicket haul and dismiss England for 294.
Smith admitted he was worried about the outcome when Prior and Swann were in full flow in an enthralling final session.
"Naturally, you are concerned. The thing that concerned me was they were playing some incredible cricket shots; out of the rough, reverse sweeps, sweeps and slogs over long-on," he added.
"I have never seen Graeme Swann hit so many good pull shots and cover drives in my life. I must give Matt Prior some credit; he has been a top performer in this series and kept England in a solid position.
"We have had opportunities to get through England, but he has been that pillar at number seven and again today. For me, it was all about hanging in there, doing the right things and get ourselves the new ball and get an opportunity. In the end that is what happened."
Philander's credentials were questioned ahead of the series, despite his remarkable start to Test cricket.
The man-of-the-match, who took seven wickets and struck 96 runs at Lord's, responded to his critics by saying: "The stats don't lie! I knew there was a big performance just around the corner and luckily it came out in this big game. I think I bowled well the whole series."
Keep tabs on the England team - click here for all the breaking news from the camp, exclusive interviews, match reports and much more


text: Great fun today watching the start of the Grasshopper in Occidental. This Grasshopper was a fundraiser for Ross Dillon. Eight years ago Ross was a young man with an amazing life stretching out in front of him; marriage, law school, bike racing. Then Ross was hit by an inattentive driver. You can read more about Ross and the important movement of bicycle advocacy at Bicycling in an article called "Broken" by David Darlington. Mr. Darlington's well written and detailed article is unlike most magazine… Read More »


text:
Recount will occur for St. Louis state Senate seat
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Republican John Lamping will have to wait a little bit longer to know if he officially has won a St. Louis area state Senate seat.
Democrat Barbara Fraser has requested a recount after Lamping defeated her by 133 votes out of more than 61,000 cast in the Senate District 24 election last month. That's a difference of less than 0.3 percentage points.
Missouri law allows losing candidates to request a recount if the gap is less than 1 percentage point.
The secretary of state's office says it has until Dec. 22 to certify the results of the recount.
History is not on Fraser's side. Secretary of state spokeswoman Laura Egerdal says the largest change in recent state Senate recounts has been six votes.
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text:
Featured Verified 18yr Old!
Juicy Jenna
Submission Date: 2012-05-05
0:33:02 HD Video / 524+ Pictures available
Voodoo has been checking out his partners hot little 18 year old daughter. Shes totally been flirting with him as well and he finally got her to himself. No one was home so they snuck off into her room where this lil nymph was ready to get down and dirty. Voodoo was going nuts and stripped her naked right away to stick his face in her juicy pussy and ass. After spanking this little freak around for a bit, Voodoo really goes to town on her and gives her the ride of her life. Dont miss out on this one.


text:
Poor Ron, you're at it again. Your chosen candidate is Obama, we get that. But, just because you favor him no matter how much he lies (Bengazi,anyone?) and no matter how awful his tenure has been for our country (rampant unemployment, an out of control EPA) that is no reason for you to imply that those of us who choose not to vote for failure a second time (as you will do), are somehow mentally incompetent is just plain ridiculous. We who have chosen Mitt Romney have done so after careful consideration of what we want for our children and grandchildren's futures. We don't want a president who decided it was more important to attend a Las Vegas fundraiser than go back to the White house to meet with his security advisers face to face concerning the murders of four American citizens in Libya. We want a president who actually had a real job (not a "community organizer") and who has real solutions to our financial and debt crisis. We want a strong and free enterprise America for future generations. And, lest I forget, we women do not vote according to our body parts! We vote for our children and grandchildren's futures!
Donna McCloskey, Auburn


text:
Loading Vacation deals...
Jacksonville Marriott
Traveler Comments
Always the Best!!
The location was good. Easy access and close to resturants.
I enjoyed my stay since the hotel was very clean. The staff was friendly and very helpful. I would highly recommend the Jacksoncille Marriot as well as any othe Marriot hotel
The furniture in the room was not arranged properly. The TV was not visible from the couch, the bed, or any of the other seating. It just faced a wall pillar. The phones also were unplugged when I got there. The whole time I was not getting calls and I had no way of knowing.
Hotel facilities were great. Clerks made error in our reservation and booked another family into our room for the second night while we were still there and even after straightening out this mess, the clerk at check out tried to charge us for a more expensive room that we were never in. Clerks acted like it was our fault and took no responsibility.
It was a new hotel, so it was very nice. We were impressed.


text:
I am forwarding this email I have sent to Dell.
It fully tells what happended this past week to me. I can't tell you how fustrated and upset on Wednesday 1/28 I was and I had to pay $49.00 for it to boot.
I am sick and tired of dealing with companies who have there customer service and ordering in other countries, with people you can hardly understand.
It was hard enough trying to do what this technician wanted me to do for almost three hours, but trying to understand what he was saying was even more difficult.
I don't know what to do, but I was told NO refund on the service. I would appreciate what ever you can do.
Gale Fandacone
Continue reading Dell complaint: Jan. 30, 09.


text:
Here is my little e mail to MTV:
I'm trying to figure out what kind of show "120 Minutes" is exactly. It sure as hell isn't the one I watched when I was in High School. Now it's basically the same stuff you play the rest of the day, except you take out all the black artists.
Which is a damn shame, not to mention racist, because some of the most "alternative" and creative songs on MTV aren't made by Matchbox 20, Everclear or Everlast, they're made by Aaliyah, Lauryn Hill and Jay-z.
Case in point. I saw a video for the House Of Pain wannabe's "Lords Of Brooklyn" on 120 Minutes. Isn't that rap? Oh, it's white rappers, nevermind. Will you be playing Eminem on 120 next week?
This was the same gripe I had with your "Alternative Nation" program. They would play the same heavy rotation pop rock stuff they played during the day. Except without the soul and rap singers. I thought more honest name for the show should be "Aryan Nation" instead of "Alternative Nation". Fortunately for you Smashing Pumpkins has A Japanese American in the band, otherwise there would be hardly and minorities in your 120 Minutes segments.
PS Play some Morrissey videos.
Pretty Fly For A White/Asian Guy,


text:
Things to see and do - Chile
Leaving for Chile
Nearby hotels
Cava Colchagua Hotel Boutique from167 $Book
Hotel Boutique Almahue from500 $Book
NOI Blend Colchagua from140 $Book
Hotel Puerta del Sur
Hotel Puerta del Sur
Address : Los Lingues 950 RCH - 5090000 Valdivia
from : 95 USDBook
An outdoor swimming pool, a hot tub and elegant rooms with private balconies can be enjoyed 8 blocks from downtown Valdivia. Wi-Fi is free. Guests can exercise at the mini gym and unwind in the sauna room. At Hotel Puerta del Sur guests can relax with a tennis match at the on-site court. Bicycle rental and babysitting services are available. Rooms at Puerta del Sur are equipped with air conditioning and flat-screen TVs. They feature pale pink carpeted floors and upholstered chairs in warm shades. All rooms have modern, marbled bathrooms with baths. Baby cots are available and have no cost. A full buffet breakfast with fresh juices and regional jams can be enjoyed in the restaurant, with plenty of light and outside views. The Pacific coast is 13 km from the hotel. The tour desk can arrange shuttles to the airport, 28 km away. Private parking is free.
Useful Information
- Address : Los Lingues 950 RCH - 5090000 Valdivia5090000Valdivia
Main services
- Restaurant
- Air conditioning
- Non-smoking rooms


text:
|Jean-Marc Alliot
|Nicolas Durand
|Géraud Granger
Abstract: FACES is an autonomous and coordinated embarked conflict solver for Free Flight airspace. It solves conflict by computing simple manoeuvres that guarantees conflict free trajectories for the next 5 minutes (mns). Coordination is ensured by giving sequential manoeuvres to aircraft with a token allocation strategy. FACES can be implemented with the current positioning, broadcasting and flight management technology. Moreover, it is robust to communication or system failure for time up to one or two minutes. FACES was tested with a traffic simulator on busy traffic days over France. Airspace over level 320 was considered as Free Flight. 638 out of 641 conflicts were solved without using vertical manoeuvres. The mean delay was less than 30 seconds by aircraft manoeuvred, with a max delay of 150 seconds. The remaining conflicts could easily be solved with vertical manoeuvres. An airborne implementation of this algorithm can be seriously considered.
As shown on figure 1, a manoeuvre is a heading change of 10, 20 and 30 degrees right or left, it starts at time t0, and ends at time t1. As stated above, t0 (and t1) are always larger than 1 minute.
In the horizontal plane, an aircraft is represented by a point at the initial time. The point becomes a line segment in the uncertainty direction (the speed direction here, see figure 2). The first point of the line ``flies'' at the maximum possible speed, and the last point at the minimum possible speed. When changing direction (t=4), the segment becomes a parallelogram that increases in the speed direction. When changing a second time direction (t=7), the parallelogram becomes a hexagon that increases in the new speed direction. To check the separation standard at time t, we compute the distance between the two polygons modelling the aircraft positions and compare it to the separation standard at each time step of the simulation. It must be noticed that, as only one manoeuvre can be given in a 5 minutes time window, and as no manoeuvre can start as long as the previous one is not finished, the convex can only be a line, a parallelogram or an hexagon.
A resolution priority order7 has to be total if we want each aircraft to solve all conflicts when there is more than 2 aircraft. For example, the Visual Flight Rule that gives priority to the aircraft coming from the right does not define a global order if there are more than 2 aircraft simultaneously in conflict. Figure 3 gives an example of conflict involving 3 aircraft for which this priority resolution rule does not define an order because transitivity is not ensured.
On figure 4, 4 aircraft are in conflict. Aircraft 1 is in conflict with aircraft 2 which is in conflict with aircraft 3 which is in conflict with aircraft 4. However, aircraft 1 can only detect aircraft 2 which detects aircraft 1 and 3. Aircraft 3 detects aircraft 2 and 4 which detects aircraft 3. Let's use a simple priority order between these 4 aircraft as for example (1>2>3>4). In conflict (1,2), aircraft 2 will have to manoeuvre. In conflict (2,3), aircraft 3 will have to manoeuvre and in conflict (3,4), aircraft 4 will have to manoeuvre. However, aircraft 4 does not detect aircraft 2. Consequently, it can not know that aircraft 3 has to manoeuvre before it can manoeuvre itself. Furthermore, aircraft 3 does not detect aircraft 1 and can not know that aircraft 2 has to manoeuvre before it can manoeuvre itself. New trajectories computed independently can then be inconsistent at the end of the resolution step. So, it is not possible to directly derive the resolution order from a simple priority order based only on transponder code for example.
Table 1 gives the token allocation at the different steps of the resolution. At the first step, aircraft 1443 and aircraft 1625 solve conflicts with every aircraft that have no token in their detection area. As no aircraft are concerned, they are not manoeuvred. Then, they broadcast their unmodified trajectories and all aircraft that have received a token from them cancel it. At step 2, aircraft 4907 is the only aircraft with 0 token which still has to build a trajectory. It solves its conflicts with every aircraft in its detection area that has no token (aircraft 1443 and aircraft 1625) and so on. 6 steps are needed to completely solve this complex conflict. It must be noticed that aircraft that are in the detection zone but are in conflict with no aircraft always keep their trajectory unmodified and are considered as constraints by the resolution algorithm (they are 0 token aircraft with their trajectory already built from the start).
Step 1 2 3 4 5 6 1380 6 4 3 1 0 1379 3 2 2 2 1 0 3513 2 1 0 1500 2 2 1 0 4907 1 0 4765 1 1 0 1443 0 1625 0
Table 1: Token allocation at the different steps of resolution
Figure 6 details an example of a search in a tree. In this example, the solving aircraft has no manoeuvre at time t=1 minute (t=1 minute corresponds to the beginning of the optimization), it is in S0 state. The first node chosen is the node that has the lowest estimated cost (h+k). In the example, the lowest estimated cost (100) is found if no manoeuvre is chosen at time 1 minute (step 1). At time 1:15 the lowest estimated cost is still 100 if no manoeuvre is chosen (step 2). At time step 1:30 the lowest estimated cost is 1000 because of a conflict occurring between 1:30 and 1:45 whatever the manoeuvre chosen is. Consequently the branch that has the lowest estimated cost is then developed. Here, at time 1:15 a manoeuvre of 30 degrees left gives an estimated cost of 105 (step 3). The solving aircraft is moved to S1 state. At the next step, the lowest estimated cost is found if the manoeuvre is extended (107). The alternative choice (S2 state: turn back to the destination) generates a conflict (step 4). At time 1:45, the lowest estimated cost is found if the aircraft turns back to the destination (S2 state, step 5). At t=2:00, only one state (S2) can be generated and its estimated cost is still the lowest (step 6).
To solve this problem the cost criteria used by the A* algorithm must be changed to take into account the efficiency of a manoeuvre. Therefore, when two aircraft must cross, the manoeuvre that enforces crossing must have a lower cost than the manoeuvre that postpones the crossing. This new criteria is included in the A* algorithm.
The maximum manoeuvre lasts 2:30 minutes.
Mean delay Mean delay per Max per aircraft delayed aircraft delay Delayed 2s 1mn14s 3mn Manoeuvred 3,6s 27,4s 40s
Table 2: Delays
So, regarding delays, the performance of the algorithm is very good.
Number of Waiting percentage steps aircraft / Total 1 1516 76,6% 2 253 12,78% 3 162 8,19% 4 27 1,36% 5 17 0,86% 6 3 0,16% 7 1 0,05%
Table 3: Number of waiting aircraft.
However, this may not be a too serious concern in the upper airspace: the simulation above shows that this algorithm is almost always able to solve conflicts, even with situations as complex as the one presented on on figure 11 where 35 aircraft are involved, while delays remain small.
This document was translated from LATEX by HEVEA.


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The Best Worst Brews
A taste test of cheap beers. (No, Bud Light isn't cheap enough to be a "cheap beer.")
By popular demand, our topic today is beer, cheap beer, beer cheaper than a relatively solvent individual generally sucks back. "Try all of the cheapest beers," a thirsty mind demanded. "Compare and rank them." Some of you may be wondering, in the solicitous tone a gracious host takes toward a problematic guest, whether the subject under discussion might be better off beneath discussion. Such concerns are not to be pooh-poohed; most conversations about cheap beer employ the word rank strictly as an adjective. And yet the theme of cheap beer abounds with richness and flavor, thus presenting a vivid contrast to the fact of it.
Let's begin by polishing the lenses of our cheap-beer goggles: In the mind of the bourgeois reader living among the connoisseurs of America's growing number of craft beers, the phrase cheap beer may well cover a broad swath of domestic macrobrews—any of the mass-produced adjunct lagers and light lagers snobbed at as BMC dreck. While it is entirely accurate, in terms of culinary aesthetics, to identify all such beers as cheap beers, as a matter of cultural analysis, it is fatally imprecise. I've recently been arguing this point with some of the finest talents in the beverage industry, by which I mean the girls behind the tap at my neighborhood bar. Asked to name her cheap beer of choice, one tattooed barmaid told me, "Bud Light with a little grapefruit juice in it." I started to protest that Bud Light wasn't cheap enough for my purposes. "That's as cheap as I go," she said. "I'm a high-class lady." I tipped her an extra buck for delivering a quote that sets up my thesis statement so perfectly: To survey the world of cheap beer is to examine a complicated terrain of class markers, class solidarity, and classiness indices.
Bud Light is the best-selling beer in America, followed by Budweiser, Coors Light, and Miller Lite, and each of these is considered, on account of its pricing, a premium beer. When the big brewers of St. Louis and Milwaukee expanded nationally after Prohibition, they charged premium prices for the flagship brands they advertised as primo product. In 1950, Budweiser was a luxury good consumed by a small elite, and popular-priced beers "commanded a market share of about 80 percent," according to The U.S. Brewing Industry: Data and Economic Analysis, by Victor J. Tremblay and Carol Horton Tremblay. Today, popular-priced beer is not terribly popular, and the term of art for the category is subpremium. This is the beer we are talking about when we talk about cheap beer—the beer down on the bottom shelf of the convenience-store cooler and the basement floor of the frat-house taproom. Today, subpremium beer commands a market share of about 10 percent.
Question: What happened? Short answer: Whassup? What happened were a few million TV commercials and the Veblen effects they engendered. People who study the structural economics of beer agree that buyers who prefer premium BMC dreck to the subpremium kind are consuming the conspicuity of a label. (Trader Joe's nods toward this dynamic with the name tag on its totally-not-that-bad bargain beer, Name Tag Lager.) Scholars like to point—and to laugh while pointing—to a blind taste test conducted by Consumer Reports in 1996. There, a panel of beer experts determined that two subpremiums, Old Milwaukee and Stroh's, were superior to all the premiums and superpremiums (such as Michelob) that they tasted. Conclusion: "Paying more does not necessarily get you more when it comes to beer."
But what, exactly, are you getting when you pay less? Sometimes, it is the local pride of a traditional favorite—Olympia in the state of Washington, Lone Star in the republic of Texas, resurgent Narragansett in New England. Sometimes, it is a can of relatively palatable foreign swill marked down for complex cultural reasons; I eagerly await an economic explanation of why Mexico's crisp Tecate is 20 cents cheaper than Bud at one New York deli and 20 cents more expensive just a few blocks away. And sometimes you are getting an economy-priced headache. Let's knock back a mixed six-pack of notable brands.
Natural Light is the best-selling beer in the subpremium segment, the fifth-best-seller overall, and—at this writing, in the view of RateBeer.com—the second-worst beer in the world. (It trails Olde English 800, a malt liquor favored in the 1980s by Eazy-E and more recently by college students. It is not in the purview of this exercise to discuss malt liquor, a topic I intend to avoid until there exists a magazine titled Ugly Buzz Quarterly willing to pay $5 per word for my wisdom on that foolishness.) Natural Light is among the cheap beers sold by the 30-pack, which, based on my own experience as an undergraduate, constitutes a single serving. I refuse to encourage young people to drink in such an irresponsible manner as I did because that would be morally wrong and totally superfluous; copious anecdotal evidence suggests they need no such encouragement. But for the sake of this story, I tried to enjoy a Natural Light responsibly and derived no enjoyment from sitting down and sipping one at a leisurely pace. My first mistake was the sitting. Beers of this type are not supposed to be drunk while sitting, unless perhaps the seat in question is mounted on a riding mower. Rather, you douse your central nervous system with them while standing, ideally over a rousing match of beer pong or robopound. Idling over a light beer, with its low alcohol content (4 percent or so) and its high amount of brewing adjuncts (cloying corn, rancid rice), you catch only a gnat of a buzz—or else advance straight from clear-headedness to a faint fogginess resembling a piddling hangover. If you're having only one beer, Natty Light is one to avoid.


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A letter from Nancy McGaughey in Sudan
April 2011
A Week on the Road
Last week was one of traveling. I went from Adol to Rumbek Monday afternoon and spent the night there to work on plans with co-workers. Early the next morning we left for Nyang so I could visit the way station for returnees from Khartoum. It is only about 100 miles away, but the road is so bad in places that it took us over one hour to travel less than 18 miles in one part. As I had been gone so long, it was a good chance to see what had happened in my absence, to take stock of the clinic and to catch up with two of our staff (who also happen to be former students of mine). Still, it was nice to return to Adol and my bed under the stars for a good night's sleep.
On Wednesday was a long anticipated trip to Paloc. I have heard about this village ever since arriving here. It is one of the most isolated villages, inaccessible during much of the rainy season. We took EPI (extended program for immunization) team with us, as they do not often reach this area, packed a lunch and off we went. We had an interesting meeting with village elders, who discussed what they had achieved on their own (school for grades 1 to 7, a health clinic that is run by a volunteer but does receive some medicines from the government, etc.) and what help they would like to receive (an all-weather road, paid staff and medicines for the clinic, refresher training for staff, vaccinations for children, etc.).
After visiting the clinic and viewing their records, we again climbed into our Land Cruiser and set off for a famous lake that is beyond this village. There was no road, only a path for motorcycles, so we searched for our own road. We passed a couple of cattle camps, followed a stream, saw lots of beautiful birds, saw some hippo tracks and finally, an hour later, arrived at the fish camp. The people living here are also Dinkas, but of a different kind — they don't have cattle. I didn't realize that there could be a Dinka without cattle! Not only that, they are a very nonviolent group, so they do not have guns either. I asked how they arranged marriages without cattle. They said they use fishing nets and boats as dowry. It was a different culture from any I had experienced before.
Thursday was another trip to Nyang to visit both the way station and also a small settlement of returnees. This group of people who came from Khartoum in January have been given some land. A borehole has been drilled and they are now in the process of putting up shelters before the rains come.
Friday was another trip to Rumbek — for a management meeting, to take my Dutch friend to the airport so she can go to Nairobi for two weeks and to visit our driver whose wife and child both died last week. The wife was seven months pregnant, went to hospital for pain and vomiting, had a stillbirth two days later and died the following night. Intellectually I know South Sudan has the highest maternal mortality rate in the world, but when it is the wife of your friend, who was in the state hospital, it takes on a different meaning. Abraham is left with 2-year-old twins and two older children. Please keep him in your prayers.
Today starts another week, another trip (or two) to Rumbek, another to Nyang, and whatever else the Lord has in store.
The 2011 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 54


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October 8, 2012
Hugo Chavez Is Here to Stay
The Economist, The Economist
AP Photo
Hugo Chavez has said he wants to remain in office as Venezuela's president until 2031. He moved six years closer to that goal on October 7th, when voters re-elected him to a new term, by a margin of almost ten points over his centrist rival, Henrique Capriles of the Democratic Unity (MUD) coalition. With 90% of votes counted, the electoral authority said Mr Chavez had obtained over 54%, to Mr Capriles' 45%. Turnout was a record 80%.
TAGGED: Venezuela, Hugo Chavez


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LOS ANGELES (AP) -- One of Roger Corman's so-called "scream queens" is gone.
Hazel Court died of a heart attack at age 82 at her home near Lake Tahoe, California.
One of her most famous roles is in the 1963 film "The Raven." Other films include "The Premature Burial," "The Masque of the Red Death," "The Curse of Frankenstein" and "Devil Girl from Mars."
These films helped propel Court to cult status and brought her fan mail even in her later years.
Court had finished an autobiography called "Hazel Court: Horror Queen," which will be published in her native England.
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After a bye on Sunday, the Rams return to work this week as they get set for Sunday's road game at Philadelphia. St.
The Blues skate against Carolina in a preseason game tonight at Scottrade Center. St.
Washington at Hermann in the KLPW-AM 1220 broadcast game. Game time is scheduled for 7:00 on KLPW-AM 1220.
Elsewhere...... more
The Cardinals clinched the NL Central title on the final day of the regular season.
The MLB postseason matchups are set after the final day of the regular season.
The Rams return to work this week coming off their bye. The Rams had no game on Sunday but now look ahead to this Sunday's game against the Eagles in Philadelphia. St.
The Blues are back on home ice tomorrow night as they host Carolina in preseason action at Scottrade Center.
The contract stalemate between the Blues and forward Jason Schwartz is over. They agreed to a two-year, 4.7-million-dollar extension over the weekend.
Paul Stastny and Robby Fabbri each scored their first goals as members of the Blues, but it wasn't enough to lift St. Louis past the Dallas Stars on Saturday.
The KLPW Radio Athlete of the Week is Junior Baseball Player Gus Kleekamp from St. Francis Borgia Regional High School in Washington.


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The Creators Project debuts the animated music video for "Last Night, Good Night (Re:Dialed)," the theme song for Takashi Murakami's debut film, 'Jellyfish Eyes,' remixed by Pharrell Williams.
The Creators Project, a partnership between Intel and VICE, has premiered the exclusive animated music video for "Last Night, Good Night (Re:Dialed)," the theme song for Takashi Murakami's debut film Jellyfish Eyes. Pharrell Williams, Murakami's frequent collaborator, remixed the song by livetune, which also features Hatsune Miku, a "virtual idol" developed from vocaloid software who has a huge cult following in Japan. Murakami then animated the song in his signature style.
Describing the inspiration for the video, Murakami said: "Somewhere in the eternity of outer space, Pharrell, Miku, and the composer of the song, livetune, are describing my film Jellyfish Eyes to a seemingly heartless robot audience. Somehow the film's message manages to reach the robots emotionally and cross the boundaries of time and space."
Speaking about the project, Pharrell said: "Seeing the video come together for this remix was incredible. Takashi's use of colors and characters really speaks to me and allows me to get lost in the many layers of his paintings."
Jellyfish Eyes is currently on a nationwide tour of major art institutions across the country. Remaining tour stops include The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in DC, Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, The Theatre at Ace Hotel in Los Angeles, and Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York. Murakami and Pharrell also collaborated on a film-inspired t-shirt that will be available at screenings and at the BBCICECREAM NYC Flagship and Webstore.
Source: The Creators Project
Jennifer Wolfe is Director of News & Content at Animation World Network.


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- Reviews
What do you think about this product?
Have questions about this product?
great boot
I am an advanced rider and tried quite a few boots before I found one as stiff as the supreme. I did end up going for a size 6, when my normal shoe size is 7-7.5. I found the lacing easy, and overall am happy with this boot. Still get a little slippage in the heel, but better than any other boot I had tried.
I LOVE these boots. I have put in 60 days this season so far...and they are holding up perfectly. I downsized one size from my normal shoe size because I hike and ride A LOT. They haven't overpacked, and have still been comfy from day 1.
The heat mold tech is just awesome, they fit my foot and ankle area perfectly. I used to always need superfeet, but these have great support.
It seems to me that if people have issues with the lacing system, it's because they bought too large of a boot to begin with. When you downsize a bit, you don't have to over tighten as much. But maybe I just got lucky.
I recommend these for serious boarders.
Not impressed
I sincerely hope that Burton has improved this model from last years nightmare. The speed zone lacing system they use is pure junk. This lacing system has busted 3 times within months of each other. What's worse is you can't fix it yourself without some "special tool" that doesn't seem to be available to us consumers. I'm getting to the point where I really feel Burton owes me for 3 days on the mountain for this inconvenience.
On the plus side I do love the heat-moldable liner. However dealing with this issue and getting it so it fits just right also costs money.
I threw down a huge chunk of change for these boots and am extremely disappointed. I hate to write such a negative review concerning a Burton product but I would look elsewhere.
I just rode a pair of Burton supreme's(last...
I just rode a pair of Burton supreme's(last years model, great price). The boot really cut into my left calf muscle. I am an advanced rider who wanted a stiffer boot. My right leg was fine. Will the boots relax if I ride them a litte more or should I return them? They fit everywhere else, anybody have any suggestions or advice??
Have you heat molded them, yet?
The Supremes have a flexible cuff on the back to expand for different calf thickness'.
What you might also want to check is your binding. Are you riding a men's binding with a taller high back? What could be happening is your high back is digging into your calf causing some pain. You should always turn your high back to run as parallel to your edge as possible to rid that bite. Maybe that will help?
I would first try that and also take it to a local Boot specialty dealer and they can help fit them for you.
It probably an easy fix if its only one calf... The Supreme's are the creme of the crop!
Are these boots really worth about $400?...
Are these boots really worth about $400? I mean, my other boots were $250 and they were really great!
In my humble opinion Burten charges a bit to much it's stuff. The quality is not always where it should be but they get buy on brand name and return policy's. Big machinery need lots of oil I guess.
When it comes to the supreme, part of the cost is the prefitted heatable sole you can attach a battery pack to to get a little more warmth to those popstickle toes.
If you're not bothered by cold feet, don't ride 80+ days, don't have the budget or are happy with lower cost boots I don't really see the point in shelling out the extra $150 for a pair of Burton Supreme - however top of the line they might be.


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Raging Thunder - FREE
Games » Racing
by Polarbit
Developer Notes
Raging Thunder is a gut-churning, tyre burning racer giving you control over the most extreme muscle cars in the world! Race against time, CPU controlled opponents or up to three other speed addicts in this fast paced and exhilarating coin-op style racing game.
Strap yourself in and prepare for...
Raging Thunder-LITE — This is your classic racing game. Enjoy!


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Ko Olina, Hawaii - To his credit, Shawne Merriman didn't allow the elevator doors to close.
As he moved from the lobby of JW Marriott Ihilani Resort & Spa to the elevator banks here Tuesday, Merriman had been asked about his decision to honor his Pro Bowl commitment, even though the San Diego Chargers' outside linebacker well understood he would serve as the game's lightning rod.
"No, I'm not embarrassed," Merriman said while holding the elevator doors open - and quite easily, at that. "The fans wanted me here. If the fans didn't want me here, I wouldn't have been here. But it was the fans who decided they wanted to see me play and I'm honored by that. I think I would disappoint the fans if I didn't show up."
In future years, players in Merriman's situation may be barred by what is likely to be known as the "Merriman Rule." Earlier this season, Merriman tested positive for steroids and, though he denied the charge, the league ordered him to serve a four-game suspension.
Merriman's supreme athletic skills and steroid allegations collided into controversy later this season when, despite his suspension, he became mentioned as a defensive player of the year candidate. Miami's Jason Taylor, who eventually received the award, and later Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey said they thought honoring a player charged with taking steroids would be sending a terrible message.
Roger Goodell agrees, and there were reports last week the NFL commissioner will prohibit any player who tests positive for performance-enhancing drugs from individual postseason awards, including the Pro Bowl.
The rule likely will be formalized in the offseason - to the overwhelming support of the league's top players. Including Merriman.
"I think it's a good rule for the NFL," Merriman said. "That way you make sure every player got here on their own merits."
Said Broncos safety John Lynch: "I like the kid. He's a very respectful person and obviously a great player. But we've got rules and I applaud the league for always being ahead of the curve."
Many players were impressed by Merriman's presence here this week, when so many other stars would have come up with a mysterious injury to avoid embarrassment or scrutiny.
"He's not that way," Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson said. "He's not going to duck it. He wants to do the right thing."
Merriman, Taylor and Bailey are all here this week, preparing for Saturday's Pro Bowl.
"It's not awkward for me," Taylor said. "I would love for him to be on our team. And we'll talk and have a couple mai tai's."
Mike Klis can be reached at 303-954-1055 or firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Reader's Choice - Top Woods to Turn
Although oil finishes and clear lacquers or varnishes work equally well on cherry, you'll get a smoother finish on this fine-grained wood if you thin the first coat to act as a sealer. Then, sand with 400-grit or 0000 steel wool after it's dry and recoat. The sharply defined sapwood is yellowish or pale yellowish-white, often with a purplish tinge. The heartwood color ranges from rose to dark-brown with darker purple-black lines. The darker streaks impart an attractive figure to the timber. Turning by Charles Cadenhead.
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