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Using Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) approaches for requirements management of green-field projects is fairly straight-forward. In a green-field project, you know to begin with a Shared Vision and stakeholder identification. You move on to requirements discovery. You envision requirements as you collaborate with your stakeholders, and create a ranked work item list of functional requirements, nonfunctional requirements, defects, and so on. You begin writing your user stories and elaborate on the requirements as you progress in your construction iterations.
Unfortunately, most IT projects aren't green-field. Most time and effort is spent maintaining existing systems that are operating in an always-on enterprise. Those maintenance projects can be quite complex, because you must honor existing system interdependencies and avoid system downtime. Moreover, IT shops are now frequently asked to substantially modify existing assets to deliver new capabilities that address an array of requirements, such as those driven by competition, government regulations, customer needs, or internal pressures. And "these requirements need to be addressed today, please!"
Success in this higher-pressure world requires, among other things, more seamless collaboration between IT Development and Operations departments. Here's where agile practices can help. The focus of this article is on agile-based process improvements necessitated by this requirement for higher-bandwidth collaboration between IT Development and Operations. My definition of "Operations" includes infrastructure, ongoing support, maintenance, and improvement of a product. I discuss agile requirements practices that can help improve IT's ability to excel in this current, more challenging and changing world. I also explain how to leverage the role of the business analyst (BA) to bridge the gap between Dev and Ops.
Sources of change
Maintaining an existing product or system is the process of refining and improving to make sure it continues to meet business needs. Potential changes are submitted to the product manager in the form of change requests. Changes can be small or big. Changes that require significant effort are typically handled as a new feature and follow the new feature process. Changes can come from multiple sources, and they can be treated differently, depending on the source of the request.
- The most common source of problem reports is the Operations group that identifies defects and errors in the product that must be fixed. These change requests are usually given immediate attention because they can cause significant problems.
- The second most common source of change requests is enhancements requested by users. Because satisfying the users is important, these requests are often given priority, but typically second priority after major errors or bug fixes. Enhancement requests can include these examples:
- New features to be added to an existing product or component
- Modifying existing functionality, that is, modifying user stories to comply with updated business rules, legislation, marketplace change or new constraints
- Building extensions onto a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) system
- Third, changes can result when the underlying software, network, or operating system changes (for example, Android vs. Microsoft Windows). These adaptations often require changing the way that an application interacts with the new operating system or new software. Although these changes might be invisible to users because they do not affect functionality, they often affect the business or technical needs of the enterprise. These changes can be among the most challenging to implement and can impact the original set of nonfunctional requirements that have been defined and implemented already.
- A fourth source of change requests is executive and senior management. These change requests are often driven by major changes in the organization's strategy or operations. These changes are often treated as separate projects, but usually, the product manager who is responsible for the initial product is put in charge of the new project and becomes the product champion (as discussed in Discover to Deliver, cited in Resources). In DAD, this role can be filled by two people: an architect owner with the technical expertise and a product owner who has business analysis skills and the knowledge of the business domain.
However, we cannot ignore that there are challenges when it comes to making changes and in maintaining or supporting a product when the development team used an agile approach. Regardless of the organizational structure and whether you have Development separate from Operations (Dev and Ops) or a joint group (DevOps) all stakeholders need to be accountable for a successful usage and operation of a product.
The challenges of collaboration
At the start of any new agile development project, the team tends to choose the appropriate process and practices for their situation. They typically avoid a significant amount of bureaucracy, develop a "just about enough" set of artifacts, and legitimately do not think of what will happen after the product is handed to Operations. Yet the team that is operating a system needs to understand how it was built, what were the initial requirements (functional and non functional) and the criteria for prioritization. This will make their work easy if they need to agree on any new enhanced features made to them later. Unfortunately, Development and Operations teams are usually two separate entities, and they seldom collaborate and share knowledge. The following categories cover the key challenges.
- Documentation
- Maintaining an existing product without adequate documentation from the Development team is challenging. An agile team might have held all of the technical requirements in their heads. Maybe all you have is the user stories from the initial backlog and the code that you have implemented. The main critique against writing user stories simply and succinctly is that they lack sufficient details to be fully understood by the Operations team who will have to agree on further changes to make to the existing system.
- Stakeholders
- In an agile project managed using agile planning techniques, the backlog is the main artifact for scope and change management. When changes happen, they are added to the stack of items and prioritized in the same way as the rest of the items, by adopting a risk-value lifecycle practice (see Disciplined Agile Delivery, cited in Resources). When the prioritization occurs, the product owner must represent all stakeholders. If you do not have Operations and support staff represented, it becomes impossible to agree on the scope and goals of the effort, including those for Operations. In addition, the user stories and your backlog items do not give the designers a context to work from.
- Persistence of requirements
- We usually omit making our requirements persist in the acceptance test suite. This is related to the acceptance test-driven development practices usually performed to drive the code from the acceptance tests and not very well-understood by the agile community. In addition to lack of persistence, when requirements models are produced, they are often thrown away after the code is developed, so there is no record of how the requirements were designed and implemented. This is what DAD advocates doing.
- Traceability of requirements
- DAD and other agile approaches do not provide guidance on traceability of requirements. If a product is maintained, and if you do not have traceability data available, it becomes challenging to make changes during maintenance and trace back to the original requirements of various types or to tests that have been used during development.
- Automation
- Some organizations are comfortable with storing their backlogs in word-processing documents, and they do not have a way to manage versions and changes in their stack of work items.
- Business analysts
- In IT, we tend to recognize that developers also work on maintenance projects. However, there is little in the agile literature about the role of a business analyst (BA) or product owner who faces substantial changes to a product following its initial release. The agile community has not invested much time and effort exploring how to handle requirements and changes after the product is released, for an overall DevOps solution.
To summarize this section, we know how hard it is to maintain a system without adequate requirements and architecture or design documentation. Using the option of exploring a black box has already been proven to be time-consuming. In addition, the Operations team does not work long enough with the development team to understand the requirements for the product being built, and collaboration is often kept to a minimum. Further, activities within the Operations department tend to fall somewhere outside of the BA's role.
Next, let's go through a change scenario to better understand what can fall under the responsibility of a BA when a product is enhanced or new features kick in.
A sample scenario for change
The diagram in Figure 1 helps illustrate the various change scenarios. The opaque box in the diagram represents the system under development. If you are lucky, you have requirements documentation that can provide visibility into the system.
Figure 1. A black box representing a current product
As the BA or product owner for the project, you have been asked to add new functionality for the E region. How do you go about dealing with this additional functionality? When you add new features, you might be required to change some screens, add new UIs, or add new data fields. This proposed change is represented by the grey space in the diagram. How do you get to know what needs to be changed in the grey space? How do you integrate E into the existing product?
What about the "connectors" that will help tie the new features to the existing system? In an agile environment, BAs should become involved in requirements management for continuous maintenance upgrades of already- deployed software. Over time, the systems that we develop using an agile approach become larger and larger, and the role of a BA becomes prominent. Projects using scrum methods are usually so well-contained that communication among all stakeholders is not a big issue. The agile team members usually have access to each other, so it is easy to clarify ambiguities. However, as projects grow in scope and size with distributed teams, the communication pathway becomes more complex. To succeed in a DevOps environment, we need to adopt a DAD approach and bridge the gap between the Development and Operations disciplines. What is the minimum a BA can do in agile development and that will help improve the ability to perform future maintenance to the software?
The key element for DevOps: A business analyst who understands the big picture
As Scott Ambler pointed out in a presentation at the Rational software Innovate conference in 2012: "An important consideration for an effective DevOps strategy is to ensure that your development teams produce solutions that work well with your Operational environment."
Today, the scale of IT is massive, business applications evolve at a ludicrous speed (Facebook, Google), and development teams push new changes every day. Discouraging change might not be the right way to do business, but you have to be smart about how you encourage change.
BAs become crucial in DevOps. They are in the primary role for dealing with new changes or requests for enhancements (RFEs) as they arise. As a BA, it is important to remain informed of all changes to the initial product and if needs be wear an Operation duty hat to keep the house in order.
Development and Operations stakeholders have different priorities, and the BA is the bridge. Development teams want to fix the problem themselves rather than wait for Operations to make a decision to handle the problem. Operations is perceived by Development as the "change blockers," and Development is perceived by Operations as "a bunch of hackers." Generally, this leads to conflicting goals. Involving a business analyst helps mediate this potential conflict in several ways:
- BAs can help align Operations and Development by unifying and extending the agile requirements practices through the full lifecycle, including Operations.
- When BAs are part of the team, they can help overcome the challenges in reaching agreement on requirements among stakeholders, including Operations staff.
- Good collaboration between BAs and Operations prevents developers from making ad hoc changes or adding new features ("gold plating") without customer approval.
- Operations wants to keep the site stable to enable the business in the best way. Stability, reliability and other non functional requirements are common requirements that a BA should be aware of. Therefore, when the business or the architecture team requires changes, BAs and Operations should be included in the discussion about those requirements, along with Development.
Having a BA on the team to coordinate and cultivate a good working culture of gaining consensus among the stakeholders and managing changes adds to the success of DevOps. However, this alone does not ensure success. If you need to produce solutions that work well with your operational environment, you must also consider scaling the agile requirements practices to satisfy the needs of DevOps.
A DevOps view of agile requirements practices: It's all about scalability
Let's enter the world of the agile requirements practices and see how they can be scaled and adapted to the needs of the DevOps approach.
Adopt a robust shared vision
Identify all key stakeholders from both sides (Development and Operations). Use a Vision artifact to express who the key stakeholders are and to convey their needs in business and technical terms. For DevOps to be successful, development teams must accept that operations and support staff are key stakeholders with whom they should work throughout the project.
Adopt scaled requirements envisioning
Use these additional techniques and tools:
- Keep track of some of the key requirements artifacts for posterity. For most cases, posterity is not further away than your release 2 or release n that your team or another team will have to work on. As you consider enhancement in the next releases, one key artifact that is easy to develop is a use case diagram. For DevOps solutions, creating a use case diagram from a list of user stories adds context and provides a good way to verify that all of the functional requirements are covered. DAD is a usage-driven approach, and having an artifact such as a use case diagram that adds value is not anti-agile.
- Explore diagramming for viewing the use of the solution. Models such as a use case diagram, a sequence diagram, and others that have been used to supplement the user stories, and were valuable to the team at the time when the details of the user stories were fleshed out, are worth keeping and should not be discarded. I'm talking about persistence again here.
- Adopt a "requirements map" for traceability between artifacts throughout the full lifecycle. This helps in reasoning about the world of requirements and its link with the rest of the testing and implementation world. Even if some valuable documents have been produced (for example, a user manual), without requirements traceability, the value of those artifacts will not be realized. Building a pictorial requirements representation helps you see the business needs and requirements not in isolation but in the context of the importance of the full lifecycle of the application, including for DevOps solutions. For this reason, the linkages between development, testing, and requirements are the most critical and most useful when it comes to understanding the product being developed.
- Automate requirements analysis and management — this is key! When possible, use a tool such as IBM® Rational® Requirements Composer to keep track of your visual requirements models and linkages between artifacts. Speaking of linkage, one key capability that is useful for future maintenance is the "link explorer" map. It's the one artifact to have, when you can only have one. Figure 2 is a sample requirement map that shows the linkage between a feature and the rest of the artifacts developed through the lifecycle.
Figure 2. Visual traceability in the Rational Requirements Composer link explorer
- The diagram includes all of the ramifications and connections to existing rules, tests, storyboards, other constraints, and implemented stories. Building a requirements map provides visibility and puts an agile team in a position to perform future enhancements more efficiently and increase the chance of delivering a maintainable product. As Karl Wieger stated in More about Software Requirements: Thorny Issues and Practical Advice, although it is difficult to quantify, this investment will pay dividends anytime that you have to modify, extend, or replace the product. Indeed, such a representation facilitates reasoning and keeping momentum between testing, development, and requirements for future maintenance.
Adopt a scaled iteration modeling practice
Do this during the construction phase. Models and diagrams incorporate knowledge of the product under development. Doing just enough modeling and keeping a comprehensive set of diagrams and sketches increases the chances of delivering a maintainable product.. Later, Operations can reuse them if any reverse-engineering analysis of the part of the product that you are modifying is required. Use requirements modeling tools to store your requirements information that is captured in multiple models: Making those important models persistent is key.
Adopt team change management practice
A disciplined, agile, lightweight change management process that helps you track all changes to your original release backlog and your requirements maps can reduce disruption caused by changes. Simple changes often have far-reaching impact, requiring that many parts of the products be modified. As a result, adopting this practice and using a tool to track potential impact provides transparency, and everyone can see what is going on. In addition, this gives you an effective, agile process to use on your maintenance activities.
Adopt acceptance test-driven development
It is worth taking time to document your acceptance criteria and to adopt an acceptance testing story approach. Even though the agile community understands that requirements and acceptance tests are not separate and they should be coupled, this practice is not yet mature. DAD recognizes that you need a requirements specification but also recognizes that your requirements specifications are not separate from the acceptance tests, unit tests, and others. Acceptance tests record the decisions made during the course of the requirements discovery and when elaborating on the stories. Further, acceptance tests are the ones that persist within the team's automated or manual regression test environment. Writing acceptance tests is lean thinking, because there is a more systemic view of the requirements across the team in lean development methods, and testing is not separate from requirements. This is an opportunity for DevOps solutions to further explore the benefits of applying this practice in an agile environment.
Adopt an overall agile governance and a scaled full risk-value lifecycle practice
These approaches support the agile requirements practices for DevOps in several ways:
- There is a degree of governance necessary to guide the DevOps solutions. Agile-appropriate governance, supported by the right requirements metrics and a goal-based approach, is required to bring the work of Development and Operations teams closer. In this goal-based approach to commitments, both teams are accountable for collaborating closely to aim for common deliverables and joint process improvement. Building this trusted partnership between the two teams minimizes the time and cost spent on knowledge transfer.
- Further, to enable explicit governance, DAD promotes enterprise awareness, which is about leveraging existing assets, following and adopting common policies and guidelines, and following existing enterprise conventions. Aiming for common artifacts is necessary for a successful DevOps solutions
- To reflect the reality, scalability is another thing that you get with DevOps. The DAD full lifecycle has three phases (Inception, Construction, and Transition), and it is evolutionary. To cater for DevOps solutions, it can be extended to include post-delivery activities to assist with support and Operations. However, it is not enough to have the feedback loop in the DAD full lifecycle, from the end of a release to the Development stack of work items at end of the inception (see Disciplined Agile Delivery, cited in Resources). Instead, you need to account for the Operations staff roles during the lifecycle of the product and the Operations activities and production teams' own goals to reach their own milestones. When you transition your product to be delivered to your end users, at what point do you commit to Operations, and support? To address the needs of DevOps solutions, it is worth exploring the addition of a separate phase to extend the existing DAD lifecycle and add other explicit milestones or light reviews related to Operations. Would that be different if we have a single organization, DevOps? I'm not sure.
Adopt requirements refactoring
Refactoring is the practice of continuously making incremental improvements in your system without changing the overall external behavior. Within the agile community, we tend to believe that refactoring applies only to architecture and design. Unfortunately, even for these two disciplines, some organizations tend to believe that it is costly to refactor, so they do not encourage their teams to apply this practice. DevOps definitely increases the importance of these refactoring practices at the design level but also at the requirements and testing levels. Some new features might contain constraints when requirements are specifying enhancements to be made to an existing system. Before adding new features built on older ones, cleaning and improvement on already existing models, diagrams, and test cases might be required for better readability and maintainability. Changes must integrate smoothly with the existing reality, and refactoring requirements to take into account such additional constraints is natural in these situations. For example, you do not have to write stories from scratch, but you can reuse and improve the existing requirements sets in any of these ways:
- Rename user stories. Let's suppose that you added acceptance criteria to an existing story. Rather than adding a new user story, you can rename it to allow for the newly identified criterion.
- Split some of the stories.
- INVEST more in improving the existing requirements to avoid dependencies with the additional ones, in the ways that Bill Wake (see Resources) defines INVEST: Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, and Testable.
- Rename storyboards, UI sketches, and so forth. Even if those improvements are commonly made during the agile development lifecycle, people tend not to spend much time on improving names.
At the low end of the formality scale, scrum project management methods and Extreme Programming (XP) have no explicit documentation practice. These approaches are useful when software projects remain simple and are executed by a co-located team. User stories are the primary vehicle for carrying the customer's requirements through the value stream, from discovery to just-in-time (JIT) analysis, through code, testing, and deployment. In such smaller, well-contained projects, the lack of requirements documentation is seldom an issue. In fact, agilists argue that stacking all requirements in the backlog as user stories avoids additional documentation and other administrative overhead and facilitates frequent interactions among the whole team and stakeholders. It is also claimed that this is a better way to ensure a complete understanding and translation of requirements.
However, as project complexity grows in size and distribution and as compliance needs and the importance of nonfunctional requirements increases, a Disciplined Agile Delivery approach becomes crucial to project success. DAD bridges the gap between requirements and development better by leveraging a full risk-value cycle, adding agile governance, and specifying the adoption of several complexity-driven practices in the architecture and requirements. In such environments, DAD is a better fit as a foundation for DevOps. DAD and tools alone won't save you, though. People must be convinced to buy into the cultural part of DevOps. But that's a topic for another article.
- The author suggests reading these for more information related to this article:
- Scott Ambler and Mark Lines, Disciplined Agile Delivery: A Practitioner's Guide to Agile Software Delivery in the Enterprise (IBM Press, June 2012)
- Karl Wiegers, More about Software Requirements: Thorny Issues and Practical Advice by (Microsoft Press, 2006)
- Dean Leffingwell, Agile Software Requirements: Lean Requirements Practices for Teams, Programs, and the Enterprise (Addison-Wesley Professional, 2011)
- Disciplined Agile Delivery and DevOps, presentation by Scott Ambler at the at IBM Rational Innovate conference, 2012, Orlando, Florida, USA.
- Ellen Gottesdiener and Mary Gorman, Discover to Deliver: Agile Product Planning and Analysis (EBG Consulting, Inc., 2012)
- INVEST in Good Stories and SMART Tasks, a blog post by Bill Wake (XP123.com, August 2003)
- To learn more, start with the developerWorks page for Rational Requirements Composer, and then review the product overview page and the features and benefits. For details and documentation, check the information center.
- Explore the Rational software area on developerWorks for technical resources, best practices, and information about Rational collaborative and integrated solutions for software and systems delivery.
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What is Missouri's largest carnivore? Of course, it's the black bear, though it isn't necessarily a strict carnivore and will eat virtually anything--including donuts!
The Missouri Department of Conservation is currently partnered with Mississippi State University, the University of Missouri and others in a project designed to put some numbers on Missouri's bears--including how many are out there, where they are, how reproductively successful they are and other pertinent facts that will help us better manage the population. A description of the entire project, along with animated maps, photographs and other interesting bear information, is available on the Missouri Black Bear Project website listed below.
We would encourage you to visit the website to learn more about this very interesting project, but will tell you that it is ongoing right now. To that end, many of your Current River District Conservation Team members are very busy with the first step in the process--catching bears! This will allow us to collect baseline data and fit them with radio collars that allow us to "see where they go and when they go there." That brings us back to the doughnuts--bears seem to love them, and that is what they are being baited in to live traps with. Some even try to come back after being released for seconds!

subset: commoncrawl


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Police: Driver bails from Jeep, crashes into Perry Hall home
Incident happens during attempted traffic stop; Juvenile charged
A teenager was arrested and charged after Baltimore County police said the Jeep he was driving went into a house while they were trying to conduct a traffic stop.
Police were called to the single-family home in the 9100 block of Belair Road in Perry Hall shortly before 10:30 a.m. Thursday, where they found a Jeep that had smashed into the front of the home.
Mobile users, click here for photos
Both the vehicle and the house had caught fire, but officials said fire crews were able to put out the flames quickly.
Detectives said officers were conducting a radar traffic stop on the Jeep's driver in the area when he bailed out of the Jeep while it was still moving. Sky Team 11 video showed police surrounding the driver down the street from where the Jeep crashed.
Officials said the vehicle was stolen from Baltimore City.
The driver was identified Friday as a 17-year-old boy from the Carney area. He was charged as a juvenile with destruction of property, driving a stolen vehicle and other traffic offenses.
There's no word on whether anyone was inside the home at the time or to what extent the home was damaged.
Police are still investigating.
Copyright 2013 by WBALTV.com All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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The solution to the need for close tolerances is to make the parts adjustable. A strap that is adjustable need not be machined to fit, initially, but can be made to fit by closing or opening the eye, for example. Adjustable timing eccentrics are also possible; one might say that the slip eccentric is infinitely adjustable, though usually one only makes use of 2 positions :-). As Duncan said, the better the fit, the better the operation. If you can't machine it to fit precisely, then design it to be fit in place.
Duncan has hit it right on the nail, all of the parts for the reverse gear needs to be very accurately made and I don't see you having any success in trying to make by hand or to fabricate the parts.
The steel eccentrics need to be machined as do the eccentric sheaves which are machined 3/32" off center to give a 3/16" lift and in my opinion without a lathe they cannot be made otherwise,it would be shame to purchase the casting set and then having to scrap it.
Slip eccentric reversing on the D10 & 10V are not infinitely variable but need to be carefully set at 120 deg to get slip eccentric to work if not you can get the steam admission at T.D.C. way out and at B.D.C. the inlet is completely blocked and vice -verse.
I think that it would very unlikely to be able to fabricate the eccentric sheaves and make them work by opening or closing the gap as this will take out the eccentricity of the bore and I doubt if you could get any accuracy by hand filing or fabricating.
The slot in the sheaves is only to take up any ware after many years of running and of course when adjusted the bore is not true but we are only talking a few thou.
Larry I think that you are being too ambitious on your first steam project and would agree with BROOKS, why not start on an engine that can be made by hand without machinery.
My comments are only based on the 3- D10's that I have built and numerous 10V's .
I hope my comments are taken as constructive and I include some pics from the reverse gear drawing showing some of the parts required.
ImagesView all Images in thread
I yield to the experience of you guys :-)
I have seen articles where guys in the olden days made stuff with just hand tools. But I certainly agree that precision work is easier on precision machines. Any old time apprentices will probably remember that their first task was to make a precision part, eg a cube, using only a file. It can be done, but precise filing takes practice, and perhaps a mentor to help you learn the tricks. I'm not that good, so I use machines :-) An electric drill has been used as a lathe, btw. Again, out of my league, but something to consider if you don't have the $ or the space for machine tools.
In the US, the earliest steam locos were made mostly with hand tools. Even threads were cut by hand, talk about precise work! Every loco sold was accompanied by a "screw plate"; nothing was standardized, and the screw plate was the template (or go/no go gauge) for the buyer when he had to make replacement threaded parts. If you have more time than $, as was the case for early loco manufacturers over here, hand labor was substituted for machine labor. A lathe was probably the first machine tool purchased...but that was only possible after the company had sold a few locos and raised some cash.
I fall into the old time apprentice category, we were given 2- pieces of metal 1- 6"x 4"x1/2" thk and another piece 3"x3"x1/2" thk, we then had to cut a square hole in the first piece and make a square with the other which had to fit into the square hole with only .0005" > .001 feeler gauge able to fit all 4 - sides, that included turning the center piece on all 4- sides, the only tools to be used was a bench drill and files, if it didn't pass the test you started again, 3- shots and then you had your butt kicked.
The heavy engineering in the early days as you say all threads were hand cut but woe betide a loco or a marine steam engine at sea if it broke down miles from home that is why Mr Whitworth was able to standardise threads on nuts and bolts to be able to send spares to any part of the world.
You must remember that in those big locos and marine engines tolerances were a bit more lenient than in model engines which are akin to sewing machines.
We had a saying on CLYDESIDE that if a tolerance was excessive it was ( a skip of the bunnet ( cap) fit ).
I am not saying that it can't be done to make the D10 reverse gear by hand filing but I sure wouldn't like to try it.
United States, MA, Mid-Cambridge
Joined Apr 2008
64 Posts
Mainsteam Gearboxes
I have a couple gearboxes from Mainsteam, which I bought to use on a large sidewheeler project powered by a Stuart Victoria. I wanted to just start the Vickie and keep it running in one direction while using the gearboxes to shift the wheels through forward / neutral / reverse. An added benefit is that steering will be greatly improved since the rudder is tiny. People will no doubt wonder how the boat can do 360 degree turns in its own length!
Have I tried out the gearboxes? Not yet. One seems to work fine but the other is a little finicky.
United States, OH, Ontario
Joined Nov 2013
19 Posts
I agree with you about it being too ambitious a first project so I ordered a Graham TVR1A-BB to build and learn a little on before I start on the D10. By the way with great faith I went ahead and ordered the reverse gear castings set for the D10 - I think that probably is the way to go.
Glenn, over on Paddleducks, some of the sidewheeler captains reported that running paddles in opposite directions for a tight turn led to capsize of the boat. This may be boat-size dependent. At any rate, perhaps a cautious approach to testing might be a good idea.
As for the physics: if the underwater body is not symmetrical about the axis of rotation, there will be an uneven torque generated as the hull tries to spin. The torque would lead to heeling. If the boat is top-heavy, the heeling may lead to possible capsize.
Hand work
I agree with everything you said, George.
Off topic somewhat, but offered as an example of what can be made by hand alone. Most US loco makers initially started as blacksmiths, Ive read.
Last week, my friend John and I were privileged to watch a talented blacksmith forge a bottle opener from a 6 rod of ½ dia. mild steel. Eric Dewey, of Desperado Forge, Bozeman, Montana, had given a blacksmithing demonstration at the Museum of the Rockies last month. He made a small hoe to an African design. His ability to effortlessly shift between explanation, and pounding hot metal, was fun to see. As a follow-up to his demonstration, I asked him if he would allow John and me to visit his forge and watch him make a "wizard" bottle opener, as shown on Eric's website. He kindly agreed, and we got a fascinating personal lesson in the working of hot metal.
The bottle opener is from an old Welsh design taught to Eric by one of his Masters. It works very well, and I find myself cruising the aisles of the supermarket, picking up bottles to try it on :-).
The most fascinating part for me was watching Eric make the eye at the business end of the opener. The eye of the opener was forged, not drilled: A) an elliptical punch is used to start the eye; the punch is applied to both sides of the bar, forming an elliptical hole that meets in the middle; a small piece of steel is knocked out and discarded at the breakthrough. B)a tapered drift (looks like a fid to this sailor) is used to open out the ellipse to form a circle C) the circle is then flattened and worked to form the shape you see in the finished wizard. Eric pointed out that a blacksmith can put a 3/4 hole in a 1/2" bar, something impossible if you use a drill :-) The forged metal flows out and around the hole, retaining the strength of the original bar, too.
Normally, Eric can turn out one of these wizards in about ½ hour. For us, with Erics explanations of each step, and his answering of our questions, it took 3 hours .a very generous man, with both his time and his advice. Id asked him if he wished to conceal any of his blacksmithing tricks. He said No, the only trick is that it takes a lot of hard work to get to this stage.
Eric was invited to show his work at the art gallery at Montana State University. John and I visited the exhibition. My favorite piece was a Bison he had made out of a lump of wrought iron. The texture of the wrought iron billet (an old nut & bolt cut from a dismantled bridge), combined with the profile Eric forged, made a neat looking animal. I didnt have my camera, so no photo, sorry.
United States, MA, Mid-Cambridge
Joined Apr 2008
64 Posts
Thanks for the info and pics of the Blacksmith's art work, it's having a bit of a revival in the U.K. with some of the artist' work displayed.
I served my apprentice ship as a Millwright on the banks of the river Clyde in the largest flour and cattle food mill in Scotland at the time, we had a very small forge mainly for bending iron bars and general repairs, I loved working in it and made all the Forge tools required and many Rams Horn tapered wedges ( we called them drifts ) from large disused files for removing large keys in pulley's on the line shafts in the mill but nothing of the quality of your Blacksmiths work but you have stirred up memories.
All Blacksmiths anvils have a square hole on the tail of the anvil for holding all sorts of tools to enable the Smith to cut red hot metal, bore holes and all sorts of bending applications.
The old village Blacksmiths are a thing of the past although they still do farm machinery repairs, all welding now, and farriers do all the horse shoeing.
I have come up thro' an era of engineering now fading fast with all the C.N.C and computer imaging taking over and I wonder when us old steam model enthusiast pass on who will take up the tools and continue with the hobby.
Eric gets many of his old tools from England. A blacksmith friend travels to England once or twice a year. He buys up old discarded/junk/scrap items from auctions, barns, etc. He fills a shipping container, and ships it to the US. Then he sells it to other blacksmiths. Lots of neat stuff is not made anymore, but is still available from Great Britain, Eric says. Some stuff is still made, of course; blacksmithing never died out completely. Almost all forged parts in American products are now made in China. They have lots of apprentices, who will work for less than apprentices in Western countries. Industrial forging is alive and well, at least over there.
Eric like old tools - he has a 50 lb. drop hammer comprised of a 1940's drop hammer frame and parts (US manufacture), run by a 1910 electric motor. Originally it ran off a 10" leather belt, probably from an overhead line; Eric uses several fan belts to connect it to the electric motor :-). It works well - the dies on the face of the hammer, and on the anvil sitting below, don't quite touch, to preserve their shape as long as possible before they have to be dressed. The hammer is not even loud - since it hits hot metal, there is no giant Clang! when the dies squish the softened steel. We got to see him operate the hammer on an order for forged keys (a thousand of them!). They are not used for actual locks, but are to be given to clients as gifts in a promotion scheme by a property manager. Thus skills are preserved, even if far from their original intent :-)
I think there will always be people interested in machining or forging for a hobby. They will enter as hobbyists, not as retired professionals, though. John had already bought parts to build a forge before we went to watch Eric. John's a professional pilot, not a professional metal worker, for example. His 11yr old son loves to build things - he's doing well in school, but....his teachers complain that, once Bob finishes an assignment, he then starts making things at his desk....and the other students find his activities more interesting than their lessons :-)
Hi .
I came into this hobby from the other end . I started out on ABB 6 axis robots , used for water jet cutting and mixing head manipulation on car seating foam plants. I had been into models for ever and had done basic metal bashing at school , but had to learn how to use a lathe and milling machine from books and hard won experience (OH So Many busted cutters and graunched lathe tools !)
And those funny imperial fractions ! (thank goodness for the conversion charts ).
But now I am addicted and do not know how I lived without machine tools.
We have a couple of huge lathes at work and a milling machine , and I appear to be the only guy who uses them (apart from my mad Scottish colleague who was trained to build pumps ) The young guys appear to have no metalworking skills at all ( Obviously health and safety dictates that metalwork is too dangerous in schools now ). We have to train all our young guys how to do simple drilling and thread tapping prior to sending them on jobs , I bet there would be more young engineers if someone came up with lathe and milling vidio games !
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New findings by scientists from Canada and the United States indicate that fetal neural tissue transplanted into the brain of patients with Huntington disease not only failed to slow or stop disease progression but also underwent degeneration similar to the pathological changes of this disorder (Cicchetti F et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009. doi:10.1073/pnas.0904239106 [published online ahead of print July 20, 2008]).
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Artist: Giles Corey
Album: Giles Corey
Genre: Folk
I'm armed to the teeth
Like a fucking animal
I ruin everything
I get my bony hands on
And here we go, now
Over the bridge of sighs
We will get a cross like christ, crucified
It's like a birth but it is in reverse
Never gets better, always gets worse
I'll gnaw at anything
New england is mine, and
It owes me a living
Step one
Step two
Step three
Step four, we fall through the floor
Fall through the floor
Fall through the floor
I want to feel like I feel when I'm asleep
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PHILIPPI - Philippi Mayor Jerry Mouser attempted to cast a vote at Tuesday's Philippi City Council meeting, but was not able to after one council member objected and the city clerk refused to help Mouser cast a vote.
Mouser, who ran the meeting, called for a vote regarding a 911 addressing and mapping issue. City Council voted 3-2 to table the issue. Then Mouser said he was going to cast a vote as well, citing state code that he said gave him the right to vote on any issue before Council.
Councilman Ed Larry interrupted, saying he wanted to call a point of order. Larry cited Philippi City Code, which he said trumped the state code cited by Mouser.
West Virginia State Code 8-9-2, which Mouser referred to, says the mayor and city recorder are authorized to vote unless it is "otherwise provided by charter provision," or in the case of a tie.
Larry said that section 12 of the city charter states that a mayor can only vote to break a tie.
Mouser then said he would temporarily turn over control of the meeting to City Clerk Tammy Stemple so that he could vote on the 911 issue. This has been the practice at past meetings when Mouser wanted to participate in a vote, but Stemple would not agree to take over the meeting Tuesday.
Stemple cited the city charter in refusing to assume control of the meeting. She said section 12 of city code states that only the mayor or a council member selected by the majority of the members may preside over a meeting.
"I'm not going to be put in a position, with all due respect - mayor or Council - as a city clerk just to be handed control of Council so that you can vote whenever you so choose," Stemple said. "I'm not going to be put in that position, ethically."
Mouser remained silent as Stemple asked what the vote was so she could enter it into the official minutes. Both Larry and City Manager Karen Weaver said the vote was 3 to 2.
The vote that was facing Council at the time was whether or not to table the decision to allow E-911 addressing and mapping to continue in Philippi, and seek more information from other cities in West Virginia that have opted out of the E-911 system.
Council members Barbara Brian and Jeff Allen voted against the motion, while Council members Larry, John Green and Terrence Boyd voted in favor of it.
Larry warned Mouser at a public work session held immediately prior to Tuesday's City Council meeting that if the mayor tried to vote, he would call a point of order.
"If you want to protest it, then protest it," Mouser said at the work session. "(West Virginia State Code 8-9-2) says I can vote on any and every issue."
Larry then gave Mouser a folder which contained copies of the city code and information to read in relation to the matter. Larry said he spoke with Joan Parker, the executive director of the West Virginia Ethics Commission, and sought her opinion.
"I'm going to vote, and until I get something from Charleston..." Mouser said, but was interrupted by Larry, who said the information was "right there" in the folder.
"Mr. Larry, I don't care about that piece of paper you have laying there," Mouser said.
"I care about that piece of paper," Larry replied.
Other Council members got involved in the discussion during the work session, as well.
"As a governing body, if we're voting on something and it comes back as a violation, I don't want to have something out there," Boyd said.
At the Dec. 17 City Council meeting, Mouser temporarily placed Stemple in charge of the meeting, thereby allowing him to vote on the rezoning of residential property to commercial property on Wabash Street in Philippi. Members voted 4-2 to approve the rezoning.
At a public work session held immediately prior to the Dec. 17 City Council meeting, Mouser and Larry got into a heated exchange about letters Mouser wrote to the Philippi Municipal Building Commission, the West Virginia Ethics Commission and the West Virginia State Auditor's office about the Building Commission having four year's worth of non-completed audits.
Philippi City Council did not meet in January.


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Get an overview of this hotelMilan hotel near La Scala and fashionable shopping
Public gardens
Overlooking the Indro Montanelli public gardens, this centrally located Milan hotel is steps from fashionable shopping and 0.7 km (0.5 mi) from La Scala. The Duomo Cathedral is 1.2 km (0.7 mi) away.
Manin Restaurant faces the hotel's private garden. Other amenities include complimentary breakfast, and complimentary wireless Internet access throughout the hotel.
Free wireless Internet
Guestrooms feature complimentary wireless Internet access, minibars, coffee/tea makers, premium bedding, and satellite TV. In-room safes can accommodate laptops. Bathrooms include showers/tubs and hair dryers.Information missing or incorrect? Tell us!Opens in a new window
Hotel ManinVia Daniele Manin,7 Milan MI 20121
Hotel Amenities
Hotel Amenities
Renovated in 2011, this Milan hotel offers complimentary hot and cold buffet breakfast daily. The hotel features Manin Restaurant, and room service is available during limited hours. Banquet facilities and event catering are also provided. Guests can take advantage of complimentary wireless Internet access throughout the hotel. Additional amenities include a business center, audio-visual equipment, a multilingual staff, secure parking (surcharge), and a 24-hour front desk. Children receive a Promoting Children - Special Welcome Kit upon arrival for tea and fruit yogurt, and for bedtime, hot milk and biscuits. The hotel donates a measles vaccination to UNICEF for each child staying with a parent.
- 24-hour front desk
- Multilingual staff
- Porter/bellhop
- Total number of rooms - 118
- Safe-deposit box at front desk
- Dry cleaning/laundry service
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- Elevator/lift
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- Free WiFi
- Snack bar/deli
- Rooftop terrace
- Luggage storage
- Concierge services
- Business center
- Tours/ticket assistance
- Limo or Town Car service available
- Meeting rooms 4
- Train station pickup (surcharge)
- Self parking (surcharge)
- Conference space size (feet) - 1076
- Coffee/tea in common areas
- Wedding services
- Free newspapers in lobby
- Free breakfast
- Express check-in
- Express check-out
- Fitness facilities
- Laundry facilities
- Garden
- Year Built 1950
- Conference space size (meters) - 100
- Number of buildings/towers - 1
Family Friendly Amenities
- Family Hotel
- Free Wi-Fi
- Soundproofed rooms
- Snack bar/deli
- Laundry facilities
Available in all rooms: Free WiFi
Available in some public areas: Free WiFi
Self parking (surcharge)
Room Amenities
- Hair dryer
- Air conditioning
- Minibar
- Coffee/tea maker
- Daily housekeeping
- Shower/tub combination
- Bidet
- Desk
- Satellite TV service
- Room service (limited hours)
- Premium bedding
- In-room climate control (air conditioning)
- Free WiFi
- Soundproofed rooms
- Private bathroom
- Free toiletries
- Slippers
- In-room safe
- Cribs/infant beds available
- Down comforter
- Individually decorated
Where to Eat
Manin Restaurant - The restaurant overlooks a private garden. Offering traditional Milanese cuisine with a modern touch. Closed on Saturday and Sunday for lunch.
Nearby Things to Do
At Hotel Manin a modern fitness room includes weights, exercise bikes, treadmills, and ab benches. Open daily.
The recreational activities listed below are available either on site or near the hotel; fees may apply.
To make special requests for accessibility needs, please note them at check-out when you book your room.
- Accessible bathroom
- Roll-in shower
- In-room accessibility
Hotel Policies
Check-in time ends at midnight
Minimum check-in age is 18
Check-in time starts at 3 PM
Check-out time is noon
Payment types
- 1 per room
You need to know
Extra-person charges may apply and vary depending on hotel policy.
Government-issued photo identification and a credit card or cash deposit are required at check-in for incidental charges.
Special requests are subject to availability upon check-in and may incur additional charges. Special requests cannot be guaranteed.
- A tax is imposed by the city: EUR 5 per person, per night, up to 14 nights. This tax does not apply to children under 18 years of age.
Optional extras
- Self parking fee: EUR 30.00 per day
- Rollaway bed fee: EUR 70 per night
Hotel Name
- Manin Hotel
- Manin Milan
- Golden Tulip Milan
- Manin Hotel Milan
- Milan Golden Tulip
- Hotel Manin
- Hotel Manin Milan
- Manin
We should mention
All guests, including children, must be present at check-in and show their government-issued photo ID card or passport. Cash transactions at this property cannot exceed EUR 2999.99, due to national regulations. For further details, please contact the property using information in the booking confirmation. This property offers transfers from the train station (surcharges may apply). Guests must contact the property with arrival details before travel, using the contact information on the booking confirmation. Children 3 years old and younger stay free when occupying the parent or guardian's room, using existing bedding.


text:
Harley Davidson Nightster Price In India: The Harley Davidson Nightster is the recent one in the HD's XL family and it has reinvented the rugged and the retro rod styling that wooed bike riders way back. In fact such a styling is the common feature of the legendary Sportster family bikes.The Harley Davidson Nightster is a fine combination of an exclusive design, with some envious paint finishes that subtly oozes characteristic Harleys. With the unmatched performance and the single low-seat it makes a perfect deal for the urbane roads. This is definitely an exciting variant from the Sportster family and the trimmed rear fender looks clean.
As for the design, the Harley Davidson Nightster is built in a way to a give a racetrack experience on the street. The Nightster sports the conventional fork gaiters & bullet-hole belt guard. But the unique graphic on the fuel tank is eye-catching. And it's the modified tweaked layout of Sportster one can say from close look at that.The Harley-Davidson XL 1200N Nightster has got the rubber-mounted XL Evolution 1200cc engine with a grey finish. The engine enables a responsive throttle and great performance. The Nightster follows the Sportster league to perfection with Electronic Sequential Port Fuel injection, easy clutch operation, remodelled gauges, improved carbon fiber belts and the front brake lever effort is a lot more convenient.
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Harley Davidson Nightster Price In India Ex Showroom Delhi Is Rs. 9,95,000/- Indian Rupees (INR)…
Price of Harley Davidson Nightster In India Ex Showroom Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad.


text:
Last Saturday, the Cumberland County Democratic Committee convened to determine endorsements for the 2012 Primary Election. The following slate of candidates was selected for endorsement:
- Barack Obama, President of the United States
- Robert Casey, Jr., United States Senate
- Ken Lee, U.S. Congress, 4th District
- Eugene DePasquale, Pennsylvania Auditor General
- Rob McCord, Pennsylvania State Treasurer
- Susan Spicka, Pennsylvania State Representative, 89th District
The 4th Congressional District was the only contested race in which the Cumberland County Democrats made an endorsement, choosing Ken Lee over Harry Perkinson by a nearly 3 to 1 margin.
According to his website, Lee is "a nationally recognized attorney who specializes in complex commercial litigation." Recently, Lee has "won cases to protect taxpayers in one of the nation's largest municipal Bankruptcies and Receiverships," and his "experience in representing businesses gives him a unique understanding of the economy and how it works." Lee is also a board member of The National Civil War Museum, the Allocation Committee of the United Way of the Capital Region, the Scholarship Committee of Executive Women International, and serves on various other boards.
The 4th Congressional District, formerly the 19th Congressional District, is currently held by Republican Congressman Todd Platts, who announced his retirement after six terms due to his pledge when initially elected. There are two Democrats, seven Republicans, and one Libertarian running to replace Congressman Platts. The newly-gerrymandered district includes all of York and Adams County, and parts of Cumberland and Dauphin County.
"I am excited by all our endorsements, especially the endorsements of Ken Lee for Congress in the 4th Congressional District and Susan Spicka for State Representative in the 89th. These two are exceptionally well-qualified candidates who are talking about stronger and better representation of the people of Cumberland County," said Michael Fedor, Chairman of the Cumberland County Democratic Committee.
The committee chose to leave two Primary Election races open – the 11th Congressional District between Democrats Gene Stilp and Bill Vinsko and the race for Attorney General between Patrick Murphy and Kathleen Kane.
"In both cases, the committee seemed to say we have a well-qualified field, and so the committee wants to let the candidates fight on an even playing field in the County so the strongest candidate emerges in each race this April," said Fedor.
Asked about the number of races where Democrats do not have a candidate on the ballot for the state legislature this spring, Fedor said, "There is no doubt that the failure of the reapportionment commission to host a truly open process and its failure to pass a legal map played a part in this. We also recognize we are rebuilding as a Party. When resources are limited, it's best to put forward a strategic plan for success that builds for the long term. Electing Susan Spicka to the state house and winning one or both of our Congressional races this year would be important steps in that direction."


text:
WASHINGTON, D.C. — School districts will continue to be able to receive Medicaid payments for some transportation activities thanks to a move made by the federal government last week.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has rescinded a final rule that would have eliminated reimbursement for the costs of transporting Medicaid-eligible students to and from schools.
HHS said in a statement that the move reflects concern that the rule, published Dec. 28, 2007, "could limit the Medicaid administrative outreach activities of schools, and that the overall budgetary impact on schools could potentially impact their ability to offer Medicaid services to students."
Simultaneously, HHS also rescinded rules that would have limited the outpatient hospital and clinic service benefit for Medicaid beneficiaries and restricted beneficiary access to case management services. The rules were, in whole or in part, under congressional moratoria that were set to expire on July 1.
The National Association for Pupil Transportation said in a newsletter that the final rule cutting transportation reimbursements would have had "a direct and dramatic impact" on some of its members.
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, in the statement announcing the rescissions, said that if the rules had been left in place, they "would have potentially adverse consequences for Medicaid beneficiaries, some of our nation's most vulnerable people.
"By rescinding these rules, we can expect that children will continue receiving services through their schools, beneficiaries will be able to access all available case management resources to help them better manage their health care, and outpatient hospital and clinic services can continue to be covered in the most efficient manner," Sebelius said.
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About Us
- Lynn @ TheActorsDiet.com
- The Actor's Diet is the daily food blog of Lynn Chen (www.lynnchen.com), a spokesperson for The National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA). The Actor's Diet is also a podcast! Listen here: http://bit.ly/1345JIP
Saturday, July 11, 2009
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73 comments:
Love those ginger chews and the lip gloss sounds fabulous! Thanks for the awesome giveaway :)ReplyDelete
Is Julius a professional model?? First thought was, "Is he included?" I scrolled down to discover you anticipated this question. :-)ReplyDelete
You keep mentioning/showing the ginger chews and I can't resist anymore. Whole Foods trip is in the weekend to do list...unless I win. Would happily apply the lip gloss before eating the first chew.
Twitter Post coming...
Oh my! I hope I win!ReplyDelete
I also subscribe.
Hey! I'm a loyal subscriber :) It would be cool to get some actors' swag!ReplyDelete
OMG.... SWAG for us too! Thanks for the giveaway.ReplyDelete
Already on my blog roll.ReplyDelete
Just tweeted.ReplyDelete
i'd love to win this contest!ReplyDelete
I'd love to try those ginger chews because i ADORE ginger!ReplyDelete
Aww the dog doesn't come too? I LOVE trying new lip gloss!ReplyDelete
Oh and you're already on my blog roll :)ReplyDelete
Mmmm...the peanut ginger chews are awesome! Have you tried the apple - those might be right up there with peanut as my favorites.ReplyDelete
and I'm a subscriber :)ReplyDelete
oh! and you're on my blogroll...and now I feel like a cyber-stalker ;)ReplyDelete
Thought I'd enter since your giveaway is on my b-day. Yay!
that is so cool that you guys get all of that free stuff :)ReplyDelete
What a fun giveaway!ReplyDelete
Cool giveaway! I'm a subscriber.ReplyDelete
Hey girl (s)! Thanks for the comment and stopping by my blog! You guys sound so amazing for showing the world the right way to eat and work in front of the camera! I'm a dance minor, so I understand the role of being thin and trying to fit a certain look in order to perform well..I'm hoping to defeat an ED/DE I've been battling for 3 years. You guys are deff an inspiration! :-)ReplyDelete
<3<3 Jenn
Aww, I want the dog too - He's adorable! I'm going to link back on my next post :)ReplyDelete
Stolen Without A Gun??ReplyDelete
BAHAHAHA never heard that one before!
Dang it I totally want to win that sweet little pup!
oo how fun! I love swag!! and thanks for stopping by my blog earlier! :-) I will subscribe to yours too!ReplyDelete
Yum! Love the ginger chews! And of course love any lip gloss!ReplyDelete
I'll send you a link tomorrow!
Oh, a fun giveaway! :)ReplyDelete
Have a great weekend!
And, of course I am a subscriber of your blog! :)ReplyDelete
thanks for giving away free stuff ladies. i'm prob not qualified cause i'm from canada but just for the record, i'm a subscriber, i follow you on twitter (and have just twittered about this post), i follow Lynn Chen on facebook, and i've added you to my blog roll but i don't blog. i'm only here to follow (or in the words of my hubby "stalk") Ms. Lynn Chen....what an actress! goodluck to all those qualified! free stuff or not, i'm still luvin' this blog. great job Lynn and Christy! have a wonderful weekend.ReplyDelete
I wish the dog was included :)ReplyDelete
Ooooh! I just discovered those ginger chews but had no idea there was PB flavor!! Yes please!!ReplyDelete
owwwwwwwww I saw these products on another blog and have been wanting to try them so bad! Your puppes is such a cutie!ReplyDelete
The puppy is so cute. LOL :-)ReplyDelete
Those ginger chews sound delicious!
I am a subscriber in Google ReaderReplyDelete
I linked back on whoiamuncovering.blogspot.comReplyDelete
Yay for SWAG! I already subscribe, but will be linking back tonight. I'll let you know in another comment.ReplyDelete
I want a fancy lip gloss!! lol. Plus those ginger chews are my favorite flavor!ReplyDelete
Your on my blogroll! :)ReplyDelete
aye aye aye! i mostly just want the dog.ReplyDelete
but i suppose ill take what i can get. :]
cool giveaway!! I am in need of some lippies so I would love to win!ReplyDelete
I'm so excited for chance to win some SWAG! Yay, for lip gloss and ginger chews!!ReplyDelete
Ooo lala! I've heard good things about those ginger chews!!ReplyDelete
Excellent giveaway! I'm already a loyal subscriber. :)ReplyDelete
Ginger chews sound quite tasty.ReplyDelete
Awww, really? Pup not included? :( Haha, oh well, still a great giveaway!
- KristenJuly 12, 2009 at 6:22 PM
I've never seen the peanut ginger chews but I am OBSESSED with the plain ones, they are delish. Great giveaway!ReplyDelete
Great giveaway! You are so pretty too!ReplyDelete
ohhh those PB chews look fab, but i do really want to win the dog :)ReplyDelete
If the dog was included, I'd start my own blog just to get that Jack Russell SWAG!!! Toooooooooo cute. also that wrapped sushi looks beautifulReplyDelete
I use to eat crystalized ginger cubes at the end of my meals too :) Plus ginger is good for digestion. Peanut ginger chews sound yummy!!!ReplyDelete
Mmmm, I've been tempted by those ginger chews before! Would love to try them, thanks for the chance to win!ReplyDelete
Ooooh Free lip gloss! Sign me up! The chews sound good too. Too bad no puppy included. Way too cute.ReplyDelete
P.S. I'll mention your contest on my blog tonight.
- AnonymousJuly 13, 2009 at 7:37 PM
This is my first post, just discovered your blog through carrots and cake.ReplyDelete
I'd love to win the ginger chews, I've seen them in the store but keep forgetting to buy them!
- MollyBJuly 14, 2009 at 4:55 AM
I've been wanting to try those ginger chews...but can I have your dog, too? :)ReplyDelete
haha i love swag. at my PR job, we just call it "stuff we 'borrow' from the product closet" tehehe. i want those ginger chews though! i've been eyeing them lately :)ReplyDelete
clarissa at digitaldeacons dot com
Added to google reader and linked on my post today: http://www.feedmeimcranky.com/?p=1561
Lovin' the blog!
I'd love a chance to try those ginger chews if Canadians may enter.ReplyDelete
I just read your post on Carrots and Cake's blog and I have to say that you truly are an inspiration! I've been suffering from Anorexia/slight binge eating for over 3 years, and I too find it difficult after meals to "call it quits". I have been trying your "sweet candy" idea today (it's actually been a sweet mint!) and it's worked wonderfully! However, those peanut ginger chews look DELICIOUS and I would love to try them!ReplyDelete
Thank you so much for being such a great role model!
oops, guess i didn't add you to my blog roll. as i don't blog i guess i don't have a blog roll. i should correct myself and say i added you to my "blogs i follow" list. i'm such an amateur.ReplyDelete
loved your guest post on carrots n cake. way to be honest with yourself, your fans, and the world. you're truly beautiful inside and out! you're still tops on my list Lynn!!!
Love this blog girls...You are both very inspiring:) Keep it up!ReplyDelete
I love everything with ginger!!! these sound really yumm~~ReplyDelete
love giveaways!ReplyDelete
i'm also a subscriber! love your blogReplyDelete
Yay, sounds like a great giveaway! Pick me! :-)ReplyDelete
That dog is so cute! Thanks so much for the giveaway!ReplyDelete
<3 jess
I love ginger anything! =]ReplyDelete
- Melinda H.July 16, 2009 at 7:11 PM
Bring on the SWAG!!! Hope I get lucky :)ReplyDelete
Swag how fun! I'd love any of those products!ReplyDelete
Ooh! Ooh! Peanut ginger chews sound awesome!!ReplyDelete
...aaaand you're already on my blogroll ;)ReplyDelete
aww, the puppy picture!! sooo adorable!!ReplyDelete
I just found your blog (through your guest post on carrotsncake) and I am so so so glad I did! I am going to email you Lynn but would love info on the ginger chews
Love Ginger People products - good & good for you! WILL TWEET!!ReplyDelete
love love ginga~ReplyDelete
&& a girl can never have too many lip glosses~
Swag is cool! ThanksReplyDelete
charisscharity [at] yahoo [dot] com
I tweeted.ReplyDelete
I subscribe.ReplyDelete
New comments are not allowed.


text:
SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Cole McKenzie had a two-run double and Billings, Mont., overcame three solo homers by Rapid City, S.D., in a 6-4 victory Thursday in the Little League World Series.
The boys from Billings won in the first appearance by a Montana team on Little League's biggest stage.
McKenzie's double followed Connor Kieckbusch's two-run single to highlight a five-run fourth. McKenzie allowed six hits in five innings, and Sean Jones pitched a scoreless sixth for the save.
South Dakota tried to rally with the long ball, including Hayden McGriff's solo shot just over the right-field wall to trim the deficit to two in the fifth. Teammate Erik Petry hit two homers, including a shot in the second that sent his coach dancing down the foul line to meet the slugger.
■ Louisiana 2, Georgia 0: Reliever Haden Erbe got out of a bases-loaded jam with nobody out in the sixth, and Lafayette, La., held on for a thrilling win against Warner Robins, Ga..
Georgia broke through against Louisiana starter Ethan Hines, who struck out six before getting lifted in favor of Erbe. The 13-year-old right-hander got the final three outs for the save, including a Dillon Toms' comebacker to end the game between two favorites for the Little League crown.
■ Japan 12, Aruba 1: Yoshiki Suzuki hit a grand slam in the second inning, and Mitsuhiro Uchida added three hits and three RBIs to lead Hamamatsu City, Japan, past Oranjestad, Aruba.
Leading 1-0 heading into the top of the second, Japan sent 10 hitters to plate and scored six runs. Suzuki had the big hit, a one-out grand slam to left-center field.
Uchida added an RBI single and Ken Igeta an RBI walk in the inning. The game ended after four innings due to Little League's 10-run rule.
■ Mexico 3, Taiwan 0: Jorge Jacobo struck out 12 and tossed a two-hitter to open the Little League World Series and lead Mexicali, Mexico, past Kaoshiung, Taiwan.
The 12-year-old right-hander struck out the final five hitters.
It was the first time a Taiwan team had been shut out in 55 games at the series.
■ Schedule, Linescores, D5


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Yellow Ostrich's Alex Schaaf: What music I'm listening to
Alex Schaaf, second from left, comes back to his home state of Wisconsin with his band Yellow Ostrich for a show at Turner Hall Ballroom Sunday. Photo by Piet Levy.
Alex Schaaf grew up in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, singing in choirs, learning piano from his mother, and getting exposed to Pearl Jam and Dave Matthews Band from his older brothers. Over time indie rock became his music of choice - Wilco, the Dirty Projectors and tUnE-yArDs were among the first acts he saw live - and now he's fronting his own indie rock band, Yellow Ostrich, based in New York.
Schaaf is back in Wisconsin this weekend, playing a show with Yellow Ostrich at Turner Hall Ballroom on Sunday. He hopped on the phone to preview the show with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (look for the story in the paper Sunday, and online over the weekend), and talk about his favorite music right now. As you'll see below, he still really likes indie rock.
Who: Alex Schaaf, Wisconsin native and frontman for Yellow Ostrich (8 p.m. Sunday, Turner Hall Ballroom, 1040 N. 4th St. $10 at the door and in advance at the Pabst Theater box office, 144 E. Wells St.; the Riverside Theater box office, 116 W. Wisconsin Ave.; (414) 286-3663 and pabsttheater.org.)
What he's listening to: We've been playing the War on Drugs' new record ("Lost in the Dream") a lot in the van.
Why he likes it: I always liked that band, and I feel on this one, its totally refined the style. I like the mix of textures, the ambient, atmospheric stuff, and also the folk rock stuff. It's really interesting.
Also likes: TEEN from Brooklyn. Those guys are really cool. They're putting out a new record soon ("The Way and Color," out April 22). And Pattern is Movement. We're touring with them; its so aweome to see them play every night.
Facebook: fb.me/piet.levy.18
Twitter: twitter.com/pietlevy
- Top of the Charts: Sia takes over No. 1 spot
- Top of the Charts: Drake makes nine weeks at number one
- Top of the Charts: Drake reaches eight weeks on top
- Sunday Summerfest country pick - Jana Kramer
- Saturday Summerfest country pick - Cam
- Friday Summerfest country pick - Phil Vassar
- Thursday Summerfest country pick - Frankie Ballard
- Wednesday's Summerfest country pick: Hunter Hayes
- Tuesday Summerfest country pick - Michael Ray
- Sunday Summerfest country pick - Kane Brown
Piet Levy is the Journal Sentinel's music writer. He has also been published in USA Today, the Chicago Tribune and the Washington Post.
Erik Ernst is a freelance music writer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He blogs for Tuned In about country, folk, jam and American roots music.


text:
Browse Atlas
Package contains 12 sets of wheels.
Blackened metal wheels.
Pinpoint axles.
Carded Packaging.
One Package of (12) N Scale 36" Wheels.
Assembly Onto Train Car
N Scale Model Railroad Equipment
Adult Supervision
Scale: N (1:160)
Width: 1/2" (13mm)
Choking Hazard: Keep away from children under 3 years of age.


text:
In history and the social sciences, the first issue to be raised is that of biographical narratives as academic sources, and of biographies as a historiographical, or sociological genre. Historian Franþois Dosse identifies biography as a halfway zone between, and a mixture of, fiction and reality, which raises the question of truthfulness. Dosse claims that biography has entered an age of hermeneutics: what then is biographyÆs capacity for highlighting processes of subjectivation whose reach by far exceeds the singular lives which are narrated, and for grasping life-courses which are, more often than not, piecemeal, if not chaotic? While the biographical approach is not necessarily an attempt to identify idealtypes, it nonetheless raises a second questionùthat of the link between objectivity and subjectivity in history and the social sciences. Just because biography consists in the narration of a singular life, is it bound to lead scholars away from their quest for collective realitiesùwhich are presumably more general and objectiveùor does it provide them with an entry into the realm of the general which makes for an alternative to univocal determinisms? Whereas Pierre Bourdieu in 1986 referred to the biographical approach as an ôillusionö (ôlÆillusion biographiqueö), conference participants may choose to ask whether resorting to biography is tantamount to a complete disregard for historicity. Or do life stories on the contrary make it possible to piece together a more complex understanding of society or historyùwhat Howard Becker calls a ômosaicö. What types of meaning may be disclosed through the diachronic reconstruction of ôcareersö, to borrow a term from Interactionism? May one actually go so far as to claim that the twists of reality which are unavoidable when resorting to biographical narratives, in fact enable authenticity to emerge?
Abstractsùapproximately 250 wordsùshould be submitted by May 15, 2008 to:


text:
This is WFTL Bytes!, your occasiodaily FOSS and Linux news show for Tuesday, January 20, 2009, with your host, Marcel Gagné. This is episode 45. Today, the US of A gets a new president and seven days later, a new KDE appears (concidence?). Meanwhile, the British Navy learns the hard way, Yahoo cheers Zimbra, companies slowly board the Linux train, and a young woman's life is ruined by Ubuntu and Dell (not really).
Download a local copy in Ogg/Theora, AVI, Flash, iPod, or audio-only MP3 format.
Want to win a copy of this week's featured book, "PHP and MySQL Web Development (4th Edition)" by Luke Welling and Laura Thompson? To win a copy, comment on this newscast (make sure you include your email when asked). I'll choose a name from the comments, at random, and make the draw this Friday afternoon. If you simply must have the book, click the Amazon link to the right. If you can't think of anything to say in a comment (oh, come on), you can email me, quoting the tags from this episode of WFTL Bytes! My thanks to Pearson Higher Education for providing the book.
For links to the stories covered in this newscast, click the 'read more' link.
Links to the stories covered in this newscast.
Royal Navy gets hit with virus
Enterprise Linux? Not so fast!
WKOW : Woman blames Dell for missing classes
YouTube posting of story, but edited to make it seem much worse
Youtube links missing.
The links to the youtube videos are missing.
Dell - Ubuntu
Seriously? They call this newsworthy? I mean didn't she "kick the tires" first to see what she was buying? or ask a few questions of the sales person? I'm surprised Dell even sold the unit with Ubuntu on it as they (and other computer suppliers) are now advertising "they recommend Windows".
It's bad enough that FOSS is (or should be) the future of computing and yet Mr. Gates has to buy or coerce these recommendations to maintain his marketshare and stranglehold on personal computing.
I was just waiting for it.
When I first heard of their migration I started the clock to some "thing" shutting down the royal navy. I was kinda hoping the Monty Python guys would have something to say. Maybe even post it to their YouTube channel. Maybe a unique rendition of "Blue Screeeeen of Death Away" to the "Anchors Away" tune. ;-)
Dell/Ubuntu/College issue.
hey, let's get a few cute girls and start calling similar shows to get Adobe, Google and others to port their applications to Linux.
My daughter would love to use Google's SketchUp but it is too young to pass a college student.
best regards,
Royal Navy
good thing George W. Bush is out of office, otherwise he would come up with Al-Qaeda/Hamas having weapons of mass infection.
Thanks for the plug Marcel !! One minor correction - Calgary Open Source SYSTEMS Festival, not "software". Otherwise, much appreciated!
For those who are interested, you can get more info at http://www.cossfest.ca.
U.S. troops and Royal Navy
I had the same idea about global infections by Hamas and Al-Quaeda. And when Marcel donned his yellow press hat, it might have been a "Freudian Slip," because he might need it to help fend off the flak from this story and the poor woman who may actually end up loving Ubuntu.


text:
St. Nicholas Orthodox Church celebrates anniversary
1123 East Ave.
- Celebrating: 75th anniversary
- Founded: 1938
- Members: 80
- Pastor: Rev. Donald Valasek
- Anniversary events: Sept. 21, 3 p.m., Great Vespers at the church, followed by invitation-only reception at the Erie Elks Lodge.
- Church history: St. Nicholas holds true to its faith and customs, church officials say.
- Church today: This month's anniversary celebration will feature the first archpastoral visitation to the church and faithful of the community by Bishop Gregory of Nyssa, who was enthroned as ruling bishop of the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese of the USA in November, officials say.


text:
Star Tracks: Monday, May 16, 2016 42 years, 2,191 covers and 55,436 stories from PEOPLE magazine's history for you to enjoy
Latest News!
- WATCH: First Lady Michelle Obama Says She's 'Straight Up Nailing' Her Job on Resume in College Humor Skit
- Read the Cover Story: Brad & Angelina Split After 12 Years: It's Over
- Refugee Killed by California Police Allegedly Drew Vape Device During 'Mental Emergency'
- Golden Girls Kim and Kourtney Kardashian Wow In Second Barely-There Balmain Outfits
- Blac Chyna Says She Posted Rob Kardashian's Phone Number on Twitter to Stop Him Texting Other Women
People Top 5
LAST UPDATE: Tuesday February 10, 2015 01:10PM EST
PEOPLE Top 5 are the most-viewed stories on the site over the past three days, updated every 60 minutes
- January 27, 2003
- Vol. 59
- No. 3
Sabrina the Teenage Witch star Melissa Joan Hart, 26, and rocker Mark Wilkerson, 25, the lead singer of Course of Nature, became engaged on Dec. 26. The couple met at a Kentucky Derby party in Louisville last May. It will be the first marriage for both....
While picnicking in California's Napa Valley on Dec. 21, Angel's Alexis Denisof, 36, popped the question to his girlfriend of two years, actress Alyson Hannigan, 28, who plays Willow on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She said yes. It will be the first marriage for both.
I Do!
In front of 80 guests, Australian actress Toni Collette (About a Boy), 30, married drummer Dave Galafassi, 25, in a Buddhist ceremony on Jan. 11 at the actress's 25-acre ranch near Sydney. The couple began dating last January....
English actor Terence Stamp, 64 (The Limey), wed his girlfriend of five years, Elizabeth O'Rourke, 23, on Dec. 31 in London.
World-renowned tenor Luciano Pavarotti, 67, and his longtime girlfriend, Nicoletta Mantovani, 34, welcomed daughter Alice on Jan. 13 in Bologna, Italy. After a difficult pregnancy, Mantovani underwent an emergency cesarean; the couple had been expecting twins, but the boy was born dead. The opera singer has three adult daughters from his 39-year marriage to ex-wife Adua Veroni.
On Jan. 10 in L.A., manager Rick Siegel, 45, sued his former client My Big Fat Greek Wedding star and writer Nia Vardalos, 40, alleging that the actress had reneged on their verbal deal to share 15 percent of her profits from last year's surprise-hit movie. Marty Singer, a lawyer for Vardalos, who fired Siegel in November 2000, called the suit "outrageous" and said that Siegel has already been fairly compensated.
On Jan. 14 a Tucson judge ruled that a police videotape showing singer Diana Ross, 58, undergoing a DUI investigation in December (People, Jan. 13, 2003) could be released to the public. Ross's attorneys agreed to the tape's release as long as the audio was blocked out.
On Dec. 19 in L.A, action star Steven Seagal, 51, sued German landlord Edeltrud Vordenwuhlbecke for fraud and infliction of emotional distress. Seagal alleges that Vordenwuhlbecke, who rented him a Berlin villa for six months while the actor filmed Half Past Dead in 2001, set out to "vex, injure, harass and annoy" him during his stay. Vordenwuhlbecke could not be reached for comment.
Veteran White House reporter Sarah McClendon, 92, known for her aggressive questioning of Presidents from Roosevelt through Clinton, died of pneumonia on Jan. 8 in Washington, D.C. McClendon worked for several Texas news organizations....
Ron Goodwin, 77, the British composer of more than 60 movie scores, including the one for the 1968 World War II thriller Where Eagles Dare, died following an asthma attack on Jan. 8 near Reading, England.
More in the Archive
Today's Photos
Treat Yourself! 4 Preview Issues
The most buzzed about stars this minute!


text:
The Oregonian's Civil War Gigapan photograph shows a panorama of Oregon State University's Reser Stadium during the game.
The Oregonian sports photographer
Bruce Ely created the Gigapan during the Civil War on Nov. 24, 2012.
The image is made up of 144 individual images taken throughout the
second quarter and stitched together to form one large image. The image
is not supposed to represent one moment in the game. There are numerous
stitching "errors". These are usually caused by a person that is
partially in a picture moving to a different location by the time my
camera made another pass.
Find yourself. Find your friends.
Ely has used the Gigapan technology for several assignments. Read more here.