text:
Nov. 15, 2011
KNOXVILLE - Tennessee sophomore quarterback Tyler Bray returned to practice Tuesday morning at Haslam Field after recovering from a broken thumb suffered against Georgia on Oct. 8.
But it wasn't the same Bray that recorded 1,579 passing yards and 14 touchdowns through the first five weeks of the season.
"He worked his way back," head coach Derek Dooley said. "He didn't take all the reps. He's not even close to what he was before he got injured, not even close. I would still say the same thing I said in the press conference, which is questionable."
Regardless of whether Bray can play Saturday against Vanderbilt or not, his effectiveness also remains questionable.
"He has a broken thumb, so you can't grip the ball and throw it the way you do when you don't have a broken thumb," Dooley said. "It's going to take some time. It's like everything around here. We want immediate fixes. His thumb is not fixed. You don't just put magic serum on it and he can go throw like he did five weeks ago. It will come. I don't know if it will be this week. I know he won't be as good as he was this week. I know that for a fact, if he plays at all. We'll see."
Bray's return, at the very least, has given the Vols an extra boost of energy in practice.
"We're excited to get him back out there," senior tailback Tauren Poole said. "I just hope he can do it in a game. That's all we want is to see him produce in the game. It's definitely a different pace in games than in practice. He had a smile on his face, he seemed happy. We're excited about him. We need him. Hopefully he can play, and hopefully he can play well."
While Bray still has to get readjust to gripping and throwing the ball, his command hasn't been altered.
"It's always good to have a player like that come back," sophomore center Alex Bullard said. "He looked pretty good throwing the ball but he just has to get back into it because he has been gone for several weeks now. He was confident and took charge. It was like having him the way we did at the beginning of the season. Of course he might be a little rusty, but he is a competitor. Once he gets back into it he will be fine."
For Bray, it's more about one `P' word than another.
"I don't think it's about protection," Dooley said. "I think it's more about production. Do I think he can move us down the field and score touchdowns? If I don't, he's not going to play. If I do, then we'll give it a shot. If he's struggling out there, then we'll pull him out.
"He's been cleared by the doctors. It doesn't mean there's not a risk .There's always a risk. The issue is can you execute the pass plays? Can you deliver the ball better than the other two guys we have?"
In-state rivalry games tend to take on a little bit more personal meaning and this Saturday's matchup between Tennessee and Vanderbilt is no different, especially with the added bowl game implications involved.
For the Commodores (5-5), the contest represents an opportunity to become bowl eligible for just the second time in the last 29 years and the fifth time in school history. Meanwhile, the game is a must-win for the Vols who must beat both Vanderbilt and Kentucky for the opportunity to play in a bowl game. UT is also looking to continue its series domination over Vanderbilt, having beaten them more times (74) than all but one other team in program history. One of 11 current players on the Tennessee roster who hail from the greater Nashville area, junior fullback Ben Bartholomew prepped at Montgomery Bell Academy with three current VU players: Reggie Ford, Wesley Johnson and Fitz Lassing. After practice on Tuesday he was quick to point out the added significance this game has for him.
"It means a lot to me and being from Nashville just makes it even more important," Bartholomew said. "Knowing some of the people in from the program and growing up around that program makes it a really important game to me so I am taking it really seriously."
A product of Brentwood Academy, just south of Nashville, sophomore center Alex Bullard is aware of the series' one-sided history, but knows that only provides Vanderbilt with more determination as it heads into Neyland Stadium on Saturday, something the Vols will have to counter.
"You just have to go out there, play with a chip on your shoulder and get after it," Bullard said. "The biggest thing with a big rivalry like this is that the records go out the window and it's about who gets after the other team. We're Tennessee. We beat Vanderbilt, that's what we do. So that's what we are going to try to accomplish this year."
Freshman Marcus Jackson has settled into his role as the Vols' starting left guard and continues to gain confidence. The Vero Beach, Fla., native drew his first start against #14 South Carolina on Oct. 29 after seeing limited time as a back-up lineman and special teams contributor.
Jackson came to UT last winter and enrolled early in order to practice last spring. That move has paid off in terms of his experience and knowledge of the offense.
"I have learned a lot," Jackson said. "It's a game of inches, first step can make a difference, pad level. It was a struggle at first, but the guys have helped me out. Experience helps, but it's really all technique and learning the defenses and knowing what (the opponents) are going to do."
Jackson moved into the starting line-up for James Stone, who began the year as the Vol starting center before moving to left guard. Despite taking his place, Jackson says Stone has been supportive.
"It's been a great opportunity," Jackson said. "I have been practicing hard, trying to get better and trying to learn from other guys who played before me. James has helped me out, he's been real good and everything is working out."
Dooley has seen some progress out of Jackson, but knows with a young offensive line there will be growing pains.
"He's played a lot better last week than he played the first couple," Dooley said. "He looked like a true freshman out there. He shows some signs that get you encouraged, and then makes some bad mistakes. We have a new center who's new at center so he has to make some calls. You have Marcus next to him and then you have Dallas (Thomas)."
Jackson is one of the Vols strongest players, even as a freshman, and has continued to gain in strength. He had a team-best 60-pound turnaround - meaning he lost 30 pounds of fat and gained 30 pounds of muscle working under head strength coach Ron McKeefery after a good base from his high school career.
"I wasn't really that strong until 10th grade," said Jackson, who says he now weighs 315. "My stepdad got me on a weight program and I just worked out every day. Coach McKeefery knows what he is doing, just have to listen to him and keep on working it."
One of the keys has been running.
"I ran so much, I'm still running now," Jackson said. "I run about four miles every day on the treadmill."


text:
What's risky? In Mexico's twin cities, journalists don't know
The Durango state governor was on his way to meet with reporters. Before he arrived, the reporters huddled to decide the question of the moment. It seemed obvious: Why had a former mayor been arrested the day before in what clearly seemed to be a political move? "That was the only question," a reporter said later. "Did the governor have the ex-mayor arrested? Because, behind that move, you can feel a crackdown coming against the opposition." Yet, this reporter added, "It was too dangerous to ask. No one was brave enough."

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Sunday, March 10, 2013
The Puffin Wicked Fast iPad Browser
It's Worth the Money, Honey!
But I went ahead and splurged and bought the $2.99 version (search the App store for Puffin Browser) so I'll have cloud enabled FLASH all the time and Nom nom is it ever SWEET! If you don't believe me, download the FREE version first, use my secret code to get double the days of FLASH, and try it for yourself. Then let me know what you think via Twitter or comments below: I think you'll like it, too!
How Fast is Wicked Fast?
The promotional verbage for this App says "Wicked Fast" and yes darlings...they ain't a lyin! I knew this iPad/iPhone browser was different than any other I've tried when it loaded my blog page in mere seconds! Because yes, I know my blog is a SLOW LOADING site due to all my graphics & embedded widgets, what? Is that wrong? Because it feels *so right!* LOL I'm pretty cheap when it comes to Apps - I've really only paid for a handfull, but this one was really worth it. I decided that in only an hour playing with the FREE version. They won me over fast. Cause see? Look at the screenshot to the left, it loaded my graphically intense webpage AND it played my embedded Harlem Shake video INSIDE the webpage WITH sound! What the what!??
One of the things that got me right away was the ability to customize my start up page with one of my graphics on both the FREE and the paid version. If you've been reading my blog for a while you know how graphically addicted I am & how I LOVE that! So I uploaded a screenshot of my Daring Librarian Steampunk Greenhouse and Zeppelin in Second Life. It's my computer background for every Apple I touch and I change it seasonally! You can also go full screen with any webpage with a touch and there's a mapping toolbar to be accessed & customized, too!
Feature this!
According to an article about this epic new browser:
"Puffin is a cloud accelerated internet browser that brings a desktop-like web surfing experience to tablets and smartphones. It renders the full versions of web pages quickly and reliably. It also supports Flash with excellent performance.
· Runs modern web applications with 100% compatibility
· Works very well on smartphones and performs even better on tablets
· Displays Flash contents (click to enable)
· Streams Flash videos (YouTube only)
· Play Flash games (not optimized and no sound)
· Multi-tab UI to switch tabs between web pages with a single tap -- smooth!
· Bookmarks
· Search suggestions
· Popup blocker
· Top sites
Puffin is a cloud accelerated internet browser that brings a desktop-like web surfing experience to tablets and smartphones. It renders the full versions of web pages quickly and reliably. It also supports Flash with excellent performance." -from Softpedia
Mouse Me!
Another super cool feature is the pop-up "MousePad." Just tap the little mouse icon in the lower left corner of the browser window, and a translucent virtual touchpad appears on screen, which allows you to navigate and click with an arrow-shaped cursor icon. Great for accurate highlighting and copy and pasting! Is this a gimmick? Sort of, but I like! There's also a pop-up keyboard! See? When you touch in any area that could be typed in - it pops up! But unlike Safari or Axis, you can make it pop up anytime! I like that!
Important Notes:
1. The FREE version is for 17+ only (there are tiny banner adds that occur infrequently which might have grownup content - not ADULT R-rated content but like PG13 crude humour & gaming content) So this is NOT a free browser to put on your school iPads.
2. This is the BETA version (heck, as Joyce would say, I'm still beta!) and it's likely to change, work out and through some bugs, be updated, and tweaked. They'll giveth and they'll taketh away features and functionalities. That happens with Beta, you can handle that right? I can!
Happy Ending:
So yeah....final Flash me, baby! An iPad browser that shows flash webpages, loads wicked fast, and is easy customizable with your own graphics & artwork?! Yes, please!
What is YOUR favourite tablet browser? What do you consider important in a tablet browser?
Here's a slideshow of all the screenshots on Flickr
Related links & articles:
Puffin Browser official site
Puffin Web Browser Free for iPhone/iPad 2.3.8
Puffin Web Browser Free 2.2.3 for iOS review
6 comments:
One thing for educators to note before they hop on the Puffin Browser is that is totally unfiltered. It bypasses filtering any content that your district is currently filtering. We have contacted the company and they indicated that they may work on offering a version to work with some of the major filtering companies.Replies
Hey Wendy, thanks for the comment! Good to know! That now & the fact that the FREE download is rated 17+ (as stated in my Important notes) is why I said I didn't recommend it for school iPads. But it's awesome that you're in contact with the designers - maybe they'll see that there's a great POTENTIAL market for this in schools. Also, my name is actually Gwyneth ;-) No worries, all my life! LOLDelete
Too bad about the filtering, glad to know though, because it's an awesome app! Just played with a little and it's incredible! I've been using Photon, which is blocked in my district, but Photon is limited. I can't really edit a Glog or a Prezi too well using Photon. I just tried to edit a Glog with Puffin and I could do a lot! And waaaay faster than with Photon. They are really onto something there with Puffin. I'm going to pay the $2.99!ReplyDelete
Thanks for sharing this, Gwyneth!
Oooh, just bought an iPad Mini for vacation! This will be our first purchased app for it! Thanks, Your Awesomeness!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 25, 2013 at 8:22 PM
hi there me too ipad mini ipad and iphone 4 have puffin browser and i payed full $2.99 price worth every chanelReplyDelete
- AnonymousJanuary 28, 2014 at 4:00 PM
The newly released Puffin Academy is a customized Puffin for K-12 education. It is a free app supporting Adobe Flash on "educational only" web sites.ReplyDelete


text:
Practice in a gherkin field set him up, writes Dylan Cleaver.
Read it one of two ways: Dan Carter's omission from the 2004 Rugby Almanack's list of five promising players was either an embarrassing oversight for the august publication, or evidence that the Cantabrian's ascension was so rapid there was no time for him to be "promising".
If anything, another young Cantabrian, Cam McIntyre, was touted as having a long future in the black No 10 jersey, particularly when Carter's initial foray into first-class and test rugby were as Aaron Mauger's understudy at second five-eighth.
"I was just going with the flow. I didn't really know where I was going to play, where I was going to end up," Carter said of his positional swap.
Pick your top 20 greatest All Blacks of all time.
"I'm really thankful for the way it turned out, getting that opportunity to play a lot of rugby at No 12.
"It's not easy playing first five at Super rugby and NPC level. It's quite a demanding position for a young player. It really worked in my favour getting experience ... off the old masters in Andrew Mehrtens and Carlos Spencer.
"When my time came to pull on the 10 jersey, I'd had some experience at the highest level."
Funny how the wheel of fortune turns. McIntyre has carved himself out a nice little career at French club Castres, while Carter recently inked a deal, reportedly worth $6 million, that will keep him in New Zealand rugby until the end of 2015. It should see him overtake nearly every rugby record.
"It's not a given to play for the All Blacks and there's a lot of young talent coming through in the next couple of years," Carter said. "They'll be in their prime so that's a challenge I'm looking forward to."
Carter is peerless in the No 10 jersey, has been for the past six years and will remain so for the foreseeable future.
Not bad for a kid from tiny Southbridge who dreamed of being John Kirwan until he stopped growing at 6 and didn't start again until he was 12.
"One of my earliest memories was the 1987 World Cup," Carter recalled. "I was only 5 and remember John Kirwan scoring that length-of-the-field try and scoring a try in the final.
"I'd always be out in the back yard pretending I was JK."
That he had a back yard at all was a remarkable piece of foresight on the part of Mr and Mrs Carter. It was a gherkin field, but sick of repairing broken windows as they watched their son use a gap in the roof as makeshift goalposts, the Carters ripped out the gherkins, laid some grass and erected a proper set.
"The beauty of living in a small community is that all your mates are not far away. We lived on a block and I had seven or eight mates that used to come around to my house - because we had the posts - almost every day after school.
"We'd play games of rugby, league and having kicking competitions, everything. I still get along with a few ... we keep in contact so it's pretty cool."
By then the diminutive Carter had abandoned JK and turned to Graeme Bachop. "I tried to perfect my pass like his, because he had an awesome pass."
After making the South Island secondary schools team out of Ellesmere College, Carter decided Christchurch Boys' High was where he needed to be to take his rugby further.
He made South Island schools again but suffered one of his few selection setbacks, spending more time than he would have liked on the bench as one Brendon McCullum directed traffic at No 10.
"That year, 2000, he was playing some awesome footy, so I spent a fair bit of time on the bench. He was a natural sportsman, good hand eye."
It was a minor blip.
The New Zealand Colts followed, as did selection in the Canterbury NPC squad.
"It was actually quite intimidating being in that Canterbury environment. There were so many All Blacks, guys I looked up to at high school, like Justin Marshall, Andrew Mehrtens and Reuben Thorne. Suddenly I was sitting alongside them in the changing rooms. I found it pretty daunting, to be honest, but I picked up a thing or two."
Or three. Within a couple of years he was recognised as the best No 10 of his generation and was nudging his way into "Best of All Time" discussions.
He might not be the dynamic attacking force he was in his 2005-06 pomp, where he could shred defences at will with his running game, but he is a more astute tactician and an ultra-consistent goalkicker.
"The more you play, the more experience you gather about the different situations you get put in. You learn to adapt to those situations quicker.
"I've played a lot of rugby now so I'm pretty comfortable in pressure scenarios ... I pride myself on my all-round game and having that experience helps. I feel I'm in a good place and playing some good footy."
The best illustration of Carter's influence can be seen when he is not there. The All Blacks struggled in'09 when he was recovering from a snapped Achilles suffered while playing for Perpignan in the Top 14.
Last year in Hong Kong the All Blacks went from a sure-thing in their final Bledisloe Cup test of the year to disappointed losers.
Most gallingly, the All Blacks suffered in the World Cup quarter-final against France four years ago in Cardiff when an ankle injury first rendered Carter ineffective, then finally forced him from the field.
"To be injured and sitting in the stands, I just felt so helpless.
"You could feel it going down the drain and with nothing you could do about it, it was just about the toughest place to be."
It is the only gap on Carter's CV. While he has shone brighter perhaps than any other rugby star in the past two World Cup cycles, the tournaments themselves have not been that kind.
He was used as a late substitute for Mauger in the 2003 quarter-final against South Africa and not at all in the semifinal loss to Australia. Four years later he played just 195 minutes before the All Blacks were knocked out as he battled the coaches' rotation policy and a troublesome ankle.
Without a credible back-up No 10, New Zealand needs 2011 to be the year Carter rights his World Cup wrongs and confirms that the shekels being paid into his account over the next four years are a bargain.
Carter's greatest hits
1 v Lions, Wellington, 2005 - The apex of first five-eighth play. Carter was so good it was mesmerising. He scored two tries, one a sideline-hugging chip-and-chase, nailed four out of five conversions and landed five penalties in a 48-18 win.
2 v South Africa, Wellington, 2006 - A year after his Lions triumph, Carter produced another Westpac Stadium classic, scoring 25 points and running the All Black cutter faultlessly in the 35-17 win.
3 v Australia, Brisbane, 2008 - One try and four superb conversions were Carter's contributions in this enthralling 28-24 win to the All Blacks. Australia were as good as they had been for a long time and it is no exaggeration to say the All Blacks would have finished a distant second were it not for Richie McCaw and, in particular, Carter.
4 v England, London, 2006 - Young England midfielder Anthony Allen was making his debut and Carter ensured it was a miserable one, fending him off to score from 35m out in this 41-20 rout. Carter had an exceptional match, scoring 26 points.
5 v Australia, Sydney, 2009 - for sheer bloody-mindedness, this comeback from his serious Achilles injury makes the list. The All Blacks had been in a terrible funk, losing twice in South Africa and were favourites to go down in Sydney too, but a Carter penalty, his fifth success from six attempts, with two minutes remaining sealed the 19-18 win.
Pick your top 20 greatest All Blacks of all time.
Next Monday nzherald.co.nz will compare our experts' list with the public's.


text:
|"Neill Calvert" <firstname.lastname@example.com>
|st: Stata Courses
|Wed, 13 Aug 2003 17:57:30 +0100
Does any one know of any European based STATA courses for someone with a good understanding of spreadsheet and database packages and econometrics, but only elementary knowledge of stats packages such as SPSS? Many thanks in anticipation -----Original Message----- From: Friedrich Huebler [mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com] Sent: 13 August 2003 16:34 To: firstname.lastname@example.com Subject: st: Re: -graph bar, over()- question and bug report --- Nick Cox <email@example.com> wrote: > I was going to suggest moving to -twoway bar- as > a partial remedy, but Friedrich wants to -stack- bars, > and I would think that's going to be difficult with > -twoway bar- (I won't say impossible, just in case > it can be done). > > However, that in turn raises the question of why you want to stack > these bars. I assert that stacking is permissible for additive > quantities, and I would say that life expectancy for > whites and blacks does not qualify. So are these just data to > illustrate the Stata graphics problem, or is this what > you want to do? Nick, The life expectancy data was a bad example to illustrate my problem. I work with household survey data and want to use stacked bar charts to show how people move through different stages in life (say, education, work, and retirement). The -over- category is age cohort and the y-axis shows the percentage of people in the different groups. The sum of these percentages is always 100. Friedrich __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com * * For searches and help try: * http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html * http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq * http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/ * * For searches and help try: * http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html * http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq * http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
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text:
|Stratford, Conn.
|High School:
|St. Joseph
|Last Team:
As a Junior: Was a consummate presence throughout the season for the Bobcats as she appeared in all 50 games, starting each from the third base position…Recorded 23 hits, 17 runs scored, three doubles, one home run, 10 RBIs, five stolen bases, seven walks and 10 sacrifice hits…Her fielding ability from the third base position certainly provided the team with stability at the hot corner position as she finished with a .965 fielding percentage, committing only six errors in 50 games…She began the year going 1-for-3 against Iona and followed with a 2-for-4 day at the plate against St. Peter's with two runs scored on Feb. 25…Drove in a run, stole a base, and scored on Feb. 26 against St. Peter's…Went 2-for-6 over two games against UC Riverside including one double and one run scored…Finished 2-for-3 against Monmouth on March 25 with two RBIs…Homered on April 1 against Sacred Heart for the first time in her career…Doubled home a run and also scored on April 4 against Fairfield…Went a combined 2-for-6 with one double, one RBI and one run scored against Wagner on April 14…Finished 1-for-4 against Hartford on April 25 with a run scored and one RBI…Went 2-for-3 against Bryant on April 29 as she tied her season-high with two hits and two runs scored…Hit safely in four straight games between May 1 – 5 where she finished with a .364 (4-for-11) batting average…Drove in a run in the NEC Championship against LIU Brooklyn on May 12.
As a Sophomore: Played and started in 28 games for the Bobcats…Recorded 27 hits, 13 runs scored and 17 RBI…Also collected 35 total bases…Ranked second on the team with eight doubles…Was successful on 5-of-6 stolen base attempts…Posted a .265 batting average, .343 slugging percentage and .390 on-base percentage on the year.
As a Freshman: Appeared in 14 games for Quinnipiac, starting in nine of them...Contributed one hit, 14 putouts and 18 assists on the year.
Before Quinnipiac: Lettered in softball and basketball at St. Joseph High School...Was named to the All-State Class M team, as well as to All-FCIAC First Team, All-Connecticut Post First Team and the New Haven Register Second Team...Also played for Xtreme Chaos...Helped her high school team reach the State Championship in 2006, 2007 and 2009, and won the Championship in 2006 and 2007...Won the League Conference in 2007...Helped the Chaos place 4th in the NSA Nationals in 2007 and make the Top 16 in 2008.
Personal: Native of Stratford, Conn...Daughter of Adrienne and Rich Figmic...Has a younger sister, Taryn...Mother attended Quinnipiac...Father played baseball at Sacred Heart...Majoring in mathematics.


text: FreeThrowsBaby is so stacked, I dont even know how anyone plans on contending with that! We got points, rebounds, percentages. I'm planning on OJ Mayo to give me the points I need, because I dont have a real scoring threat like I did last year with Lebron. But I like the mix I have. Between D. Rose, Mayo, Marc Gasol, and David Lee, I think those 4 will give me the points I need. Assists might be a losing battle for me, which is too bad because I drafted D-Will. Anyone interested in D-Will?


text:
Shopping on the Internet has become a routine part of life for many people, and not just during the holidays. According to an infographic based on the June 2010 Nelson Global Consumer Report:
- 74% of the population uses the Internet
- 66% of Internet users purchase products and services online
- In 2010, Americans spent $186 billion online
These online shopping statistics indicate even more activity in the future, with online buying projected to reach $250 billion by 2014.
More online shopping statistics
These statistics are from the Global Online Shopper Report:
- Globally, 69% of online shoppers use credit cards to complete their transactions
- Globally, shoppers spend about five hours per months on online buying transactions
- And, just for fun: 95% of people are physically in their homes when making an Internet-based purchase, more specifically:
- 54% are in the living room
- 43% are in the bedroom
- 3% are in the bathroom
Read the full report for even more info.
Online auto parts shopping tips
If you're new to shopping on the Internet–or even if you aren't–then you may find these online auto parts shopping tips to be helpful:
- Use the Advance Auto Parts live chat feature when ordering parts and tools. This free service is available seven days a week, and representatives can answer your questions and guide your purchases so you get the right parts the first time.
- If you need your auto parts on the same day, you can choose the convenient in-store pickup option and pick up your parts at the Advance Auto Parts store nearest you. You can even pick up one part of your order at the store closest to your home, another part at the store closest to your office and so forth if that's what you indicate during your purchase. Lots of flexibility!
- You can also return or exchange items purchased online at an Advance Auto Parts store.
See you online!
Editor's note: Don't forget to check out the deals happening at Advance Auto Parts…there's always one going on!


text:
Movie Review: X-Men: First Class
The fifth installment in the X-Men film series is a prequel that tells the story of how the band of mutants first came together.
Director: Matthew Vaughn Rating: PG-13 Studio: Marvel Entertainment
Talk about jazzing up a tired-out franchise. X-Men: First Class does that and more. A satisfying, highly disposable gourmet summer popcorn epic set in the 1960s—or, at least in the 60s audiences know and love from James Bond movies and The Man From Uncle—the zippy, smart and highly entertaining prequel tells of the coming-together of the band of mutants that includes young telepathic, supremely logical brainiac Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), blue-skinned shape-shifter Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) and Holocaust-ravaged, conflicted Magneto (Michael Fassbender) who join up to destroy sadistic megalomaniac bent on world domination, Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon).
Shaw's diabolical scheme hinges on pushing Russia and the U.S. to the brink of nuclear annihilation and the film (from a cracking good screenplay credited to Jane Goldman) cleverly uses the near-cataclysmic Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 as a major climactic nail-biter. To thwart the campy villain's doomsday scenario, the iconic, gorgeous freaks recruit other younger genetic misfits that include slew-footed, brilliant Hank McCoy, a.k.a. "Beast" (Nicholas Hoult) and Angel (Zoe Kravitz).
Director Matthew Vaughn, unlike the series' best friend predecessor Bryan Singer, doesn't mine the material for deeper political and sociological subtext. Still, the movie zings along with unexpected laughs, jolts of emotion, a couple of terrific cameos and, best of all, strong performances. Sure, the sight of the spectacular-looking, utterly blank iceberg blonde January Jones as Emma Frost vamping in her white-hot skivvies is a show-stopper, and some will dig Bacon's hamming it up as a Nazi monster. But the movie belongs to McAvoy and Fassbender. Witty, intelligent, soulful and complex actors, their chemistry and likability leap off the screen. And Fassbender demonstrates the catlike moves, charisma, dash and touch of sadism that could make him one hell of a 007. Meanwhile, with that role in the capable hands of Daniel Craig, Fassbender and the cast of X-Men: First Class are so watchable that they ought to find themselves busy for quite some time. So, when can we expect X-Men: The Second Coming?
About the Author
Playboy Contributing Editor Stephen Rebello has written many Playboy Interview and 20 Questions features. He is the author of such books as the notorious Bad Movies We Love (with Edward Margulies) and Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho, the latter of which has inspired a dramatic feature film set for production in 2011. His most recent Playboy Interviews include Josh Brolin and Cameron Diaz.


text:
Anna Lena Phillips, Emily Buehler, Fenella Saunders
STORMING THE GATES OF PARADISE: Landscapes for Politics. Rebecca Solnit. University of California Press, $24.95 cloth, $16.95 paper.
Rebecca Solnit has made it her work to assemble and reassemble the best ideas of the environmental movement, feminism and American visual art. Her writing, which considers both rural and urban landscapes, is rooted in the American West, particularly California and Nevada. Storming the Gates of Paradise, a collection of 35 of her essays, demonstrates her powerful and integrative thinking.
Solnit excels at deep exploration of her subjects. In "Excavating the Sky," she places the history of science in the context of Western culture, taking us from a meditation on the sky/land boundary in Western landscape painting to Galileo's telescopes and their role in advancing longitude calculation, which allowed greater European exploration and exploitation of what is now the American West.
Each of the book's nine sets of essays has a striking photograph as its frontispiece. The image at right ("Ravens, Field Museum, Wyoming, 1871; Oklahoma, 1964," by Terry Evans) precedes the section titled "Infernal Museums," which includes, among other things, a piercing critique of the art museum being created in Bentonville, Arkansas, by Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton.
The essay "Other Daughters, Other American Revolutions" contextualizes the work of Rachel Carson, Betty Friedan and Jane Jacobs. Here Solnit illuminates the relationships between ecosystems, human-made spaces, human rights, environmental concerns and creative work. With wit and subtlety, she tackles the perceived and culturally reinforced separation between landscape and culture, which, she says, "makes politics dreary and landscape trivial." Her work offers revealing, sometimes even thrilling, alternatives to this glum view. —Anna Lena Phillips
CRIME SCENE CHEMISTRY FOR THE ARMCHAIR SLEUTH. Cathy Cobb, Monty L. Fetterolf and Jack G. Goldsmith. Illustrations by Linda Muse. Prometheus Books, $26.
Crime Scene Chemistry for the Armchair Sleuth explores dozens of aspects of forensic science, relating each one to a facet of chemistry. Every chapter is prefaced by a simple hands-on experiment, which adult readers can do at home with (supposedly) common materials, illustrating a crime-solving technique involving chemistry. Next, the chapter itself opens with a vignette laying out a crime-scene investigation. The reader is left to ponder "whodunit" while the pertinent chemistry is discussed, and finally, the detective on duty solves the case.
The topics covered progress in difficulty and include atomic and molecular structure, phases of matter, intermolecular forces and chemical reactions. The latter half of the book uses the chemistry discussed previously to analyze trace evidence—as when infrared spectroscopy is used to match bits of blue fiber found in the mouths of dead dogs to the ripped blue jeans of their killer.
The book, which assumes no prior knowledge of chemistry, is well organized, sprinkled with interesting analogies and written in inviting, understandable language. But some of the explanations are overly vague, and the authors have overlooked many opportunities for providing helpful diagrams.
Although some of the cases in Crime Scene Chemistry for the Armchair Sleuth are on the level of Slylock Fox comics for kids, many are clever. Be warned, however: The book makes use of a steady stream of puns and plays on words, and every character has a corny name, such as I. C. Yoo or Candace B. Real.— Emily Buehler
BANANA: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World. Dan Koeppel. Hudson Street Press, $23.95.
The banana we eat today, the Cavendish, is not as tasty as the Gros Michel variety that our grandparents enjoyed, says Dan Koeppel, author of Banana. But in the 1960s the Gros Michel succumbed to a blight called Panama disease. Cavendish plants were initially immune, but a more virulent strain of the fungus has emerged to threaten them. Researchers are now trying to develop a commercially viable banana that can resist the disease.
Koeppel details the fruit's natural and cultural history. In ancient translations of the Bible, he says, Eve was tempted in the Garden of Eden not by an apple but a banana—a more suggestive image. The plant may have been one of the first to be cultivated, but the fruit was not widely known until the 19th century, when brave but brutal banana barons figured out how to export the fruit in large quantities. The environment and the health of native workers suffered, but the industry's exploitativeness has largely been hidden from Americans by spin-doctoring, delivered by such jolly characters as Chiquita Banana (left).
Koeppel is clearly enthralled with his subject. Writing with ease and elo-quence, he has packed a great deal of information into the book. Whether the story ends happily may depend on how adventurous consumers are in trying new varieties of banana. Koeppel's mouthwatering descriptions left me dying to taste them all. —Fenella Saunders
You can find this online at http://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/short-takes-on-three-books-8
© 2016 Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society


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Shannon Walker (top) and Brandi Wall
Freshmen athletes boost UTSA volleyball team
By Brian Hernandez
UTSA Associate Sports Information Director
(Sept. 6, 2006)--Heading off to college can be a harrowing experience for any 17- or 18-year-old, let alone for someone who has the added responsibility of being a student-athlete at the Division I level.
Today's headlines
- La Prensa Foundation is newest member of UTSA Lone Star Society
- UTSA alumna Jordan Kaufmann wins $50K for new stent-graft start-up
- UTSA begins new way-finding sign installation this summer at Main Campus
- USA Today: UTSA long jumper Tyler Williamson rescues three-year-old boy
Article tools
Freshmen Shannon Walker and Brandi Wall have had to face the ups and downs of being away from home for the first time while trying to fit in with a new group of teammates. That's never an easy transition, but if their performances through the first week of the season are any indication, the Roadrunners volleyball team will be in trusted hands the next four years.
"Both Shannon and Brandi have adjusted to the team very well," head coach Laura Neugebauer-Groff said. "They are very talented players, but both of them know they have to improve. They are working hard at that every day in practice, but what I have really noticed about them is that they are very confident in their abilities and not intimidated by any situation. That is important."
Walker, a 6-foot-1 outside hitter from Carrollton, has seen the most action of the pair to date, starting all five of UTSA's matches this season. She is second on the team with seven service aces (including a career-high three Tuesday night vs. SMU), tied for second on the squad with eight block assists and third with 42 digs.
"I think playing for an open club team the last two years helped my transition to UTSA," said Walker, a vital member of Hebron High School's 2004 Texas 4A State Championship squad. "The upperclassmen have done a great job of welcoming me and I think we are starting to work well together on the court."
Walker has started all five matches for the Roadrunners this season.
Walker said she did not expect to start this soon in her career, but was excited when she heard her name called as a starter by Neugebauer-Groff on Friday afternoon against Syracuse.
"I was surprised when Coach told me I was going to be starting on Friday," Walker said. "I was really nervous when I took the court against Syracuse and Wichita State, but by Saturday morning, I started to feel comfortable out there. I know the other five players on the floor have been playing together for a while, so I just want to go out and help my teammates win."
Wall, who celebrated her 18th birthday while the team traveled to Wichita last Thursday, said she didn't expect to play much in the Best Western Classic. However, Neugebauer-Groff called her number in three of the four matches and she recorded two digs and a pair of block assists against Eastern Washington."I really didn't expect to play last weekend but was glad Coach had the confidence to put me in there," Wall said. "It had a little extra meaning because I was able to play in front of my family in my home state. I know I have a long ways to go, but I am trying my best every day at practice so I can get out there and help my teammates be successful."
Wall, who stands at 6-foot-2, came to UTSA as a two-time all-state performer at Piper (Kan.) High School in the Kansas City metro area. She has another seven years of club experience under her belt and helped lead the Mid-America Volleyball Club to a fifth-place finish at the 2004 Junior Olympic National Tournament.
By the time October and November roll around, the pair will be seasoned veterans and the transition from high school to college will be complete.


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As local sauvignon blancs account for a significant chunk of the samples I'm sent, however sensational they may be, I do get a rush of excitement when something out of the ordinary turns up ... such as the box of wines from Malta that recently arrived at my door.
I'd never tried wines from this country before and they reminded me of the vinous pleasures to be had from the lesser-known wines of the Mediterranean.
Despite having spent my formative years in London - a veritable El Dorado of international wines - not a drop from this Mediterranean archipelago had ever passed my lips.
Furthermore, here in New Zealand what we get to see is somewhat limited, given the parochial nature of our wine market and the fact we're just too small and far away for most smaller international producers to consider as an export market.
We largely have to rely on adventurous local importers, such as La Cantina's Ben Naden, who has just started bringing in the Marsovin wines that provided my first taste of Malta.
It was someone in a neighbouring shop with connections to Malta that put Naden on to Maltese wines, which he discovered no one had imported into New Zealand before.
"As an independent retailer, I'm always looking for something new to get my customers excited," he explains. "It was a huge gamble, but I decided to bring in a mixed pallet."
Luckily, the risk paid off. Naden is now on his fifth shipment of a selection that ranges from simple sub-$20 quaffers to top wines such as Marsovin's Primus, a serious dry red made from sun-dried grapes, that sports a similarly serious premium price tag of $120.
After doing further research, I realised it was no surprise that Maltese wines had been under my radar.
Although the country has a wine culture dating back to 300BC, it's been a mere speck on the world's wine map, making small volumes of once-rustic wines largely consumed by tourists.
However, more competitive times ushered in the modernisation of its wine industry. There's been considerable investment in the country's vineyards since the country joined the EU in 2004 - including a joint venture by the respected Italian wine group, Antinori - and the launch of a classification system for quality wine production, based on the Italian model.
Malta is not alone in being an historic Mediterranean winegrowing nation that has reinvented itself in recent years.
Recent decades have seen Greece, the cradle of the vine itself, transformed from a purveyor of cheap plonk and pine-scented retsina to one of Europe's most exciting producers.
I'm far more familiar with Greek wines, having travelled from the vineyards of Macedonia in the north - where I marvelled at its exotically scented malagousia - to the idyllic island of Santorini in the south, with its lemon-scented and minerally assyrtikos.
Investment combined with a new wave of quality-focused producers has seen some stunning wines emerge, with the added intrigue of many being made from its wealth of intriguing indigenous grape varieties.
"Greek wines have changed so much," acknowledges Angela Etheridge, who started importing Greek wines some years ago through her family business Lepanto.
"However, it takes a lot of educating the consumer and marketing support."
Although Greece produces far more wine than Malta, there's sadly not much available here in New Zealand.
However, this may change with time.
As we become a nation of more sophisticated wine-drinkers with importers prepared to risk bringing us lesser-known wines, we're seeing more diversity in what's available.
That's great news and will help us keep up with some of these interesting developments in wines from far-flung corners of the world.
Citadella Maltese Islands Red, Malta 2011 - $19.95
Made from syrah and the local variety gellewzah, this easy-drinking red displays juicy dark berry fruit, with an attractive savoury undercurrent and hint of herb. (From lacantina.co.nz.)
Monte Nobile Nero D'Avola, Sicily, Italy 2010 - $17.95
Better known and more widely available in New Zealand are the wines of Sicily. This great-value example exhibits rich sunbaked dark fruit laced with spice, notes of violet and a tarry undertone. (From wine retailers including Fine Wine Delivery Company, Alberton Fine Foods, Point Wines, The Wine Barrel.)
Boutari Nemea Agiorgitiko 2008 - $25
Ripe blackberry and cherry fruit combine with notes of cocoa, clove and pepper in this attractive wine made from one of Greece's most widely planted native black grapes. (From Glengarry, Bacchus Cellar, Cambridge Fine Wine Company, Scenic Cellars.)


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LAND AREA: 389.04 square miles
White: 58.9%
Black/African American: 36.6%
American Indian: 0.7%
Asian: 2.3%
Pacific Islander: <0.1%
Two or more races: 1.5%
Hispanic/Latino: 6.8% (of any race)
From State & County QuickFacts, US Census Bureau, 2014.
Biographies for
Tyrrell County
Wildlife profiles
Coastal Plain
Geographic Information
REGION: Coastal Plain
RIVER BASIN: Pasquotank
NEIGHBORING COUNTIES: Dare, Hyde, Washington
Tyrrell County is located on the southern shore of Albemarle Sound, in the Coastal Plain of northeastern North Carolina. Named for Sir John Tyrrell, one of the Lords Proprietors, the county was formed in 1729 from Chowan, Bertie, Currituck and Pasquotank Counties. It is bordered to the east by the intracoastal waters of the Alligator River. Its county seat, Columbia, was incorporated in 1793 as Elizabeth Town and renamed in 1801. Other communities in the county include Gum Neck, Kilkenny, Fort Landing, Frying Pan Landing, Newfoundland, and Woodley.
Tyrrell County is dominated by its coastlands and its swamps, and the terrain has limited development and population growth since the county was founded. In 2004 Tyrrell County was the state's least populous, with an estimated 4,100 residents. But it is a popular location for fishing and other water sports, hunting, and bird watching. The 110,000-acre Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1990 and is headquartered in Columbia. The refuge and surrounding county lands are home to one of the last large habitats for black bears on the eastern seaboard. Pocosin Arts in Columbia is among the premier arts organizations in the state.
Additional resources:
Tyrrell County Government: http://tyrrellcounty.org/
Greater Tyrrell County Chamber of Commerce: http://www.visittyrrellcounty.com/
Tyrrell County resources, NC Digital Heritage Center: http://www.digitalnc.org/counties/tyrrell-county/
Image credits:
Rudersdorf, Amy. 2010. "NC County Maps." Government & Heritage Library, State Library of North Carolina.
1 January 2006
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Speech team sees success
Success continues for the Pequot Lakes Jr. and Sr. High Speech Teams. Last Tuesday brought the Jr. High team all the way to Bemidji where a total of seven awards were earned by the team. For Creative Expression, Allie Miller once again took home the first place medal. Others on the team who earned awards were, Abby Person in Extemporaneous Reading, Jacob Giedd and Nova Kilbourne in Humorous Interpretation, Vanessa Sellner in Informative, and Courtney Rock and Breanna Hanson in Serious Prose. The Jr. High team will attend their final invitational of the season on March 12 in Walker.
On Saturday, March 9, the Sr. High team braved the slick and icy roads to compete at the Osakis/Parkers Prairie Invitational. Nearly every team member in attendance took home an award. In Dramatic Interpretation, Angela Cole took second Place, Michelle MInk was awarded a blue ribbon, and Breanna Rhodes took home a red ribbon. Jacob Giedd earned a blue ribbon in Humorous Interpretation and Nova Kilbourne took home a red ribbon. Vanessa Sellner earned fifth place in her category of Informative, and Erin Brine-Doyle earned fourth place in Serious Poetry. Finally, in Serious Prose, Ben Sullivan won first place and Angela Cole earned third place. The season is quickly coming to a close for the team with only two more regular season tournaments before post-season competition begins. Next Saturday, March 16, the team will be traveling to Milaca, MN.


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Product Description
- Dimensions: 29.2cm
- For most cheeses and vegetables.
- Ergonomic shaped handle with non-slip finish and non-slip ends for grating stability and safety.
- Protective cover doubles as a measuring device
- Large grating surface.
- Stainless steel blade.
- Dishwasher safe. Hand wash preferred
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Delivery Info
Full delivery info, guarantees and terms can be found here.
Your Home Depot offers all customers a flat shipping rate of $9.90 on orders up to 10kg* nationwide. For big & bulky orders (over 10kg*), delivery is calculated at checkout based on your postcode.
Same Day Dispatch
Confirmed orders placed online before 2pm AEST on Monday to Friday will be picked, packed and dispatched from our Sydney warehouse on the same day. Confirmed orders placed on the weekend or on public holidays will be dispatched on the same day from the Monday, or next business day.
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Standard Australia Post Delivery can take anywhere between 1-6 days from the day of dispatch depending on the location within Australia. Express Post is also available as a delivery option a checkout for guaranteed next business day delivery to most locations in Australia. Same Day Delivery is delivered same day to Sydney metro, for confirmed orders placed before 1pm. Full details here.
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Your Home Depot offers FREE in-store pick up from Rydalmere, Sydney. To pick up your order in-store, once you input a NSW postcode you can just select the 'In-store Pickup' option at the checkout. Full details here.
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Your Home Depot will always endeavour to satisfy your return with a replacement product. In the event a replacement product cannot be provided, where a product is faulty, damaged or broken within 14 days of receipt and before usage, or an item is returned to us in 'as new' conditions after a Change of Mind, you may request a full cash refund, less return delivery fees.


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Bright and Stylish Callao D Flat (17536)
Size70 m²
Floor No.1(with elevator)
- Family/child friendly
- Kitchen
- Air conditioning
- Balcony/terrace
- Towels
- Baby cot
- Elevator in building
Accommodation summary
|Carrer de Callao, 08014 Barcelona, Spain
|Property type
|Property ID
|Acceptance rate
|Response time
|A few hours
|Calendar updated
Bright and elegant apartment located in a new building in the neighborhood of Sants. The apartment has air conditioning, heating, WiFi and also has two small balconies, one outside in the living room and the other in the rooms. The first has a table with chairs to have breakfast. Redecorated in November 2016.
Plaça Espanya D has a spacious living room with a large table, a coffee table, a TV and a double sofa bed. It has an extraordinary clear and fully equipped kitchen with refrigerator, oven, washing machine, coffee maker and all the utensils you need to cook during your stay. The accommodation is reviewed periodically, especially the dishes and utensils, so that everything is in perfect condition and nothing is missing.
The Plaza Espanya D consists of two double bedrooms. The master has a double bed with two bedside tables and a large closet. The other bedroom has a bed and a sofa bed. All beds have bedding for each station. It has a full elegant bathroom with bathtub to relax and unwind for a while.
Just opposite the apartment there is a large supermarket open Monday through Saturday. If you prefer fresh produce, you are just 2 minutes from Hostafrancs Market where you can buy fresh produce better quality neighborhood. This market is only open in the mornings from Monday to Saturday.
It is located five minutes from Plaza España and one minute from the stop Hostafrancs metro, which will take you to the heart of the city in 15 minutes. The apartment is next to the longest shopping street in Europe, Carretera de Sants, where you can enjoy your shopping without using public transport.
In Espai Barcelona we have made a guide that will be delivered via email in which there is the best places to go near the apartment and also throughout Barcelona. In addition we give you tips for your visit to the city as pleasant as possible.
House rulesSECURITY DEPOSIT
Less than 24 days 300€
More than 24 days 1200€
Late check-in and check-out: 50 € after 20:00; 70 € after 24:00 and before 08:00.
Tourist Tax: 2,48€ per person/night. Children under 17 are exempt.
Parking near the apartment for € 14 a day.
To avoid unnecessary delays, you should call the contact person from the airport or when you are 20 miles away from the city by car, to confirm the exact time of check-in. At check-in you must submit photocopies of passports or photo ID of all adult occupants staying in the apartment. At check-in you must pay all amounts in cash (Deposit + Tourist Tax), in case you need to make a card payment you should request this prior to arrival.
The owner usually does not rent to groups where all members are less than 25 years old. Please respect the neighbors, no noise after 21.00. This apartment does not allow noisy parties, severe charges will be applied if guests do not respect this rule . Non-smokers apartment. Check security deposit and tourist tax with owner. Pets are not permitted.
|Weekly rate for up to 6 guests
|Monthly rate for up to 6 guests
|Maximum nights
|1 year
|Check-in after
|Check-in before
|On arrangement
|Check-out before
|Cancellation Policy
Reviews of this property
Wir haben den Barcelona-Aufenthalt sehr genossen. Die Wohnungübergabe hat reibungslos geklappt, alles war zu unserer Zufriedenheit. Die Wohnung liegt in einer ruhigeren Ecke, trotzdem fußläufig alles super zu erreichen. Metro-Station gleich um's Eck, Supermarkt und verschiedene Bars, Restaurants gleich in der Nähe. Gerne wieder.
Appartement très bien placé, confortable et bien équipé. Le quartier est agréable et la station de métro est vraiment à deux pas.
En clair, tout s'est bien passé durant notre séjour à Barcelone.
Seul bémol, le montant de la caution: 500 euros à donner en liquide, c'est quand même beaucoup.
Reviews for this host's other properties
The host cancelled the booking, this review is automated.
Very good location. Near place Espanya ans also Place Catalunya. The metro is on the front of the bulding. Kitchen full equiped. No Nose, no problem with neighbors. Verry clean appartment.
The Owner is verry nice and helpful.
Verry good for family with Childs.
Very nice apartment. Everything was in working order and clean.
Francisco & co were great hosts and the apartment was impeccable. Good location, good amenities around - including a big supermarket and mini mart full of essentials open daily until 2am - and the transport links were good. Would definitely stay again.
Spacious, well located and means of transport nearby, supermarket across.
Own accommodation, sheets changed and towels provided.
The bathrooms are tastefully renovated. For cons, the kitchen is little shabby provides kitchenware. No coffee pot, pots and pans had a little more than lived!
Last flat neighborhood more than noisy, sleepless night, the neighbor making the wolf!
We called the owner, who has arranged and everything is back to normal thereafter.
Finally, suitable apartment for a few days at lower cost to many.
Appartement spacieux, bien situé et moyens de transports à proximité, supermarché en face.
Logement propre, draps changés et serviettes fournies.
Les salles de bains sont rénovées avec goût. Par contre, la cuisine est délabrée peu fournit en ustensiles de cuisine. Pas de cafetière, les poêles et casseroles avaient un peu plus que vécues!
Dernier bémol voisinage plus que bruyant, une nuit blanche, le voisin faisant le loup!
Nous avons téléphoné au propriétaire qui a fait le nécessaire et tout est rentré dans l'ordre par la suite.
En conclusion, appartement convenable pour quelques jours à moindre coût à plusieurs.
Very nice apartment, good location and a friendly landlord.
Sehr schöne Wohnung, gute Lage und ein freundlicher Vermieter.
The apartment from francisco was very beautiful. Located directly at the main beach in Barceloneta (2min work). perfect! - only the supermarcet in this area are not so cheap as somewhere else but that was no problem-. 3mins work there is the metrostation and from ther u can drive where ever u want :)
Barcelonaaa see u again in june 2015 !!! :)
The host cancelled the booking, this review is automated.
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The 15 Most Influential Rap Albums

With the 25 anniversary of Straight Outta Compton coming up this week, we run down the 15 most influential rap albums of the last 30 years.

This week marks the 25th anniversary of Straight Outta Compton, N.W.A's violent and powerful debut album that forever shaped the face of rap music. To mark the occasion, we're running down 15 other albums that helped shape the genre into the ever-expanding and extremely lucrative behemoth that it is today. From its humble beginnings to its larger-than-life characters, we give you the 15 most influential rap albums.
The Breaks
Assorted Artists – Super Disco Brake's (1979)
Long before anyone was laying rhymes over digital loops, "breaks," the rhythmic foundations of rap, surfaced in the form of Super Disco Brake's Volume 1 (and later Ultimate Breaks and Beats). The then-underground releases, shrouded in gray legality for their often unauthorized use of copyrighted material, ran full tracks from the era together seamlessly to create an extended break, the backbone and signature element for all future sounds.
Early Days
The Sugarhill Gang – Rapper's Delight (1979)
Maybe it was fate, or maybe it was the fact that "Rapper's Delight," the first mainstream proto-rap single to break into the Top 40 charts, was laced with rhymes written by (but never officially credited to) Grandmaster Caz of The Cold Crush, but the Sugarhill Gang never again made it as big as they did with their 1979 single. Still, the song stands as a mile marker for the budding genre, its first foray into mainstream markets.
Afrika Bambaataa – Planet Rock (1982)
No single song can sum up Afrika Bambaataa's contribution to the early evolution of hip-hop; between solidifying the genre's staying power by pulling its earliest talents into "supergroups" to taking the break beat stylings of turntable pioneers like Kool DJ Herc to new heights, Bambaataa has rightfully earned the designation of the Godfather of Hip-Hop. But "Planet Rock" does stand out: the splicing together of samples from across the musical spectrum (from Japanese electropop Yellow Magic Orchestra to the German Kraftwerk) and the single's status as the first gold-certified 12-inch vinyl signaled a growing demand for the genre.
The Cold Crush Brothers – Fresh, Wild, Fly and Bold (1984)
While the song itself stands as a notable contribution to hip-hop, the story behind it and lessons learned are what really pushed "Fresh, Wild, Fly and Bold" onto this list. Set for stardom—it sold 16,000 units in its first week of release, a big fucking deal back in 1984—a distribution dispute between Tuff City and Profile Records curbed its growth prematurely and ultimately cost the Cold Crush a certified gold release. Though enterprising minds in the industry would have likely birthed the notion of setting up their own labels anyway, what happened to the Brothers in 1984 demonstrated the obvious need for new labels from within the culture to manage and protect the naïve artists of a potentially lucrative new industry.
The Jump: The First Modern Rap Album
Run-D.M.C. – RUN-D.M.C. (1984)
Run-D.M.C.'s eponymous debut marked the birth of the modern rap album; it did away with the upbeat, lighthearted funk of hip-hop's early '80s innovators in exchange for a sparse, almost empty sound overlaid with an emphatic, pronounced beat and cutting, raw rhymes. It stood as a leap, a departure rather than part of a seamless evolution, as though Run-D.M.C. had grown impatient waiting for hip-hop to catch up and released the album four years ahead of its time.
Crossover Appeal
Run-D.M.C. – Raising Hell (1986)
Between Run-D.M.C. and Raising Hell came LL Cool J's Radio, a resounding seconding of the minimalist aesthetic Jam Master Jay, D.M.C. and Rev. Run had achieved on their inaugural effort. It cemented the sound as the definite direction for all future followers. But it wasn't until Raising Hell that this new-school philosophy gained widespread acclaim; the covering of Aerosmith's "Walk This Way," surrounded by standout songs like "It's Tricky" and "Peter Piper," brought a whole new audience to the genre.
Beastie Boys – Licensed to Ill (1986)
But "Walk This Way" was still only one track; what the Beastie Boys did on Licensed to Ill emboldened still hesitant hip-hop listeners to adopt the genre full-time. Part rap, part rock, it meshed two worlds by creating what amounted to a mockery, a satire of both and taking it way too seriously. The fact that Ad-Rock, MCA and Mike D were all from white, Jewish, middle-class New York families probably had something to do with making the music more accessible to a new wave of would-be rap connoisseurs.
Rap as Cultural Criticism
Public Enemy – It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988)
N.W.A – Straight Outta Compton (1988)
A Tribe Called Quest – The Low End Theory (1991)
Music has never been just an art, an entertainment source in and of itself. From the Blues to Dylan, Coltrane to Cobain, it has to one extent or another been a soapbox, a place of profound if not at times mysterious expression, documenting the times. Rap was no different; once the foundations were formed, once it got comfortable in its own skin, it became a pulpit, a vantage point for a largely disenfranchised black community. Of the most prominent preachers, three stood out: Public Enemy for their oft-militant approach (perhaps best exemplified in "Fight the Power"); N.W.A for their uncompromising and unapologetic look at the life of a gangster (a theme and a sound that would soon transcend the rap game); and A Tribe Called Quest for rhymes and rhythms every bit as complex as their hyperintelligent (but less aggressive; indeed, positive) commentary.
Departure from Sampling
Dr. Dre – The Chronic (1992)
Up until The Chronic, rap was largely dependent on sampling and up-tempo break beats borrowed (or stolen) from another record to hold any album, any song together. Dre, a veteran of N.W.A and already considered one of rap's great pioneers, changed the game again with his first solo release. Dark, drawn-out and characterized by a slow, booming bass, The Chronic was recorded using live band "interpolations" to create the wholly unique beats and instrumentals that would come to characterize much of the next decade in West Coast rap and ultimately mark the rise of the now integral original producer.
Rise in the East
Wu-Tang Clan – Enter the Wu-Tang (1993)
Notorious B.I.G. – Ready to Die (1994)
By 1993 rap was in large part dominated by this new West Coast sound; the Souls of Mischief from Oakland, the Pharcyde from L.A. N.W.A had essentially disbanded and each member became a household name in his own right. And whispers of a solo release from then-unknown star of The Chronic, Snoop Doggy Dogg, were everywhere. So it came as a bit of a surprise when the Wu-Tang Clan, the East Coast's answer to N.W.A, dropped Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) on everyone. It was all raw, eerie aggression, a vast departure from the laid-back (though still haunting) sounds coming out of California. RZA, GZA, Raekwon and Method Man were always cutting in, playing off each other. It was quite simply the most complex sound to come out of the rap world to date.
Then came Biggie. If Wu-Tang's Chambers, with its distinct sound, carved out a place for the East Coast rap scene, elbowed it back into the big picture, Biggie's Ready to Die was going to keep it there. Part street life epitaph à la N.W.A, part funky good times from way back in the day, Big Poppa aka Frank White aka Christopher Wallace took the image of a rapper from ghetto street rat to kingpin. And never did the mantra "act as if" play out more true; from here on in, MCs emerged on the scene as larger-than-life figures.
Another Level
Nas – Illmatic (1994)
Jay-Z – Reasonable Doubt (1996)
With both scenes taking on distinct qualities (and the well-documented beefs that sprang from those distinctions), the only place to go was up. A competition-breeds-excellence sort of thing. And while much has been written about which coast was better, who was pushing the sound harder, the genre further, the real innovation was taking place inside a few city blocks of New York City. Illmatic was a hyperintellectual look at street life, complemented by a skill on the mic "not seen since Rakim"; Reasonable Doubt was crafted with immense care, ratcheting the level of production up to something orchestral. Together, the two opened the doors for rap to go anywhere, proving that the genre could be as complex and creative as any that had come before it.
Welcome White Boys
Eminem - The Slim Shady LP (1999)
At some point in 1999 "Forgot About Dre" started making the rounds on MTV and some white kid who talked funny and fast was featured on the hook and a verse that was equal parts perverse, violent and lyrical genius. No one knew what to make of it; he was a freak show, a kind of off-the-wall, wacky Batman villain, a pyromaniac who laced his rhymes with weird sound effects and was decidedly bent on killing his wife. He was a parent's nightmare, a bleached-blond Marilyn Manson brainwashing the kids. And sure enough, soon every kid on the block was wearing a visor upside down and sideways with their pants hanging low, The Slim Shady LP on loop. His equally insane videos didn't help stop the flow, and as much as some rap purists might hate to admit, Marshall Mathers probably did more for spreading rap into the mainstream than anybody before him.
Check out Playboy's Nine Influential Rock Albums here.


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One who drinks so much that they transform into a different creature, often doing obscene things to them self and others.
Person 1: Last night I drank so much I got kicked out of the bar, broke my phone, lost my wallet, slapped a ho, and fell on my face.
Person 2: I shall call you, Boozilla
Person 2: I shall call you, Boozilla
by Boozilla December 15, 2007


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|Federal Perkins Loan Program (Apr 26, 2007)
|The Federal Perkins Loan Program provides low-interest loans to help needy students finance the costs of postsecondary education.
|Student Assistance General Provisions; Notice extending institutional and applicant filing and reporting deadlines [FSA] (PDF) (Oct 14, 2005)
|The Secretary announces an extension of the deadline dates for specific filing and reporting activities: ederal Perkins Loan, Federal Work-Study, Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant, Federal Family Education Loan, William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan, Federal Pell Grant, and Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnership Programs.
|Notice extending institutional and applicant filing and reporting deadlines; Student Assistance General Provisions, Perkins Loan, FWS, FSEOG, Federal Family Education Loan, Direct Loan, Pell Grant, and LEAP Programs [FSA] (Sep 09, 2005)
|Announcement of xtension of the deadline dates for specific filing and reporting activities for specific Federal Student Aid programs. The Secretary takes this action as a result of the extensive damage and disruption in the southern United States caused by Hurricane Katrina.
|Portable Document Format (PDF) (61KB)
|Applicant Info -- Federal Perkins Loan Program (Aug 19, 2003)
|This page lists application kits, required forms, notices inviting applicants, schedules, and other information of interest to prospective applicants under the Perkins Loan Program.


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With Billy Slater back to his blistering best, Bulldogs gamebreaker Ben Barba is bracing for an explosive Melbourne Storm in an NRL grand final shaping as a match for the ages.
First versus second, Craig Bellamy against Des Hasler and Barba v Slater provide a fitting climax to the 2012 NRL season.
It will be the third time in six seasons Bellamy and Hasler have locked horns in a premiership decider, but it's the battle of the two fullbacks that has the potential to illuminate what's certain to be a titanic battle at ANZ Stadium.
Recently crowned Dally M medallist, Barba has thrived under the disciplined coaching of Hasler, who is looking to create history by becoming the first man to lead two different sides to premierships in successive years.
Slater has been the game's standout No1 for the past six seasons and is the current international player of the year.
Statistics, though, show Barba has edged the Melbourne superstar this season. He has been the Bulldogs' key man in a side who have won 14 of their past 15 games, scoring 22 tries in 26 matches.
Slater, unavailable to the Storm during the State of Origin series and also injured for a period, has crossed for 15 tries in 20 games.
However, Barba leaves him in his wake when it comes to metres made from kick returns, helped by some blistering long-range tries such his length-of-the-field effort against Parramatta in round nine.
Barba has clocked up 1521 metres compared with Slater's 776, and despite his diminutive stature has broken 168 tackles with the Melbourne man trailing behind with 100.
Despite this, Slater is one of the best performers in big games and was magnificent in the win over Manly last Friday, scoring twice.
And it was not lost on Barba that his fellow Queenslander was out of the side injured when Canterbury beat the Storm 20-4 in round 16, and he admits his stunning season will count for little on Sunday.
"Billy wasn't playing that day and he'll definitely add a bit more spark for them," Barba said.
"I haven't played in a grand final but I'm sure it's a whole different ball game. What happened in the season means nothing."
Barba's teammate Josh Reynolds agrees Slater will pose a huge threat to the Bulldogs, but said there was more to be concerned about than just Melbourne's so-called big three.
"Slater, Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk have been a big threat for them for years," Reynolds said. "But they've got strike power everywhere."
The Bulldogs finished two points ahead of Melbourne to seal the minor premiership, but the Storm scored more points and conceded less - chalking up a +215 points differential, 17 more than Canterbury.


text: I live 50 miles from Troy. I have a daughter who is a junior there now. I have another daughter who graduated with JJ last July. fBoth daughters are friends with one of JJ 's best friends from childhood through High School. JJ and her went to lunch a few weeks back ( Sister's Restaurant). He's ready to get to work. He feels confident he will get his shot for significant playing time. Biggest hurdle - learning the offense and experienced players in front of him. I know a good deal of us on the boards see his potential and are open minded about his future. Stay that way! This guy has great hands, speed, moves, and most of all confidence. IMHO he will prove to be the real deal. I have watched him since he dominated High School ball. Looked as good against Florida State caliber teams as he did North Texas caliber. Stay tuned!


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Does Osteoporosis Run in Your Family »
"If one of your parents has had a broken bone, especially a broken hip, you may need to be screened earlier for osteoporosis. This is a medical condition where bones become weak and are more likely to break. Share your family health history with y"...
(teriparatide [rDNA origin]) Injection
In male and femalerats, teriparatide caused an increase in the incidence of osteosarcoma (a malignant bone tumor) that was dependent on dose and treatment duration. The effect was observed at systemic exposures to teriparatide ranging from 3 to 60 times the exposure in humans given a 20-mcg dose. Because of the uncertain relevance of the rat osteosarcoma finding to humans, prescribe FORTEO only for patients for whom the potential benefits are considered to outweigh the potential risk. FORTEO should not be prescribed for patients who are at increased baseline risk for osteosarcoma (including those with Paget's disease of bone or unexplained elevations of alkaline phosphatase, pediatric and young adult patients with open epiphyses, or prior external beam or implant radiation therapy involving the skeleton) [see WARNINGS AND PRECAUTIONS, ADVERSE REACTIONS, and Nonclinical Toxicology].
FORTEO (teriparatide [rDNA origin] injection) contains recombinant human parathyroid hormone (1- 34), and is also called rhPTH (1-34). It has an identical sequence to the 34 N-terminal amino acids (the biologically active region) of the 84-amino acid human parathyroid hormone.
Teriparatide has a molecular weight of 4117.8 daltons and its amino acid sequence is shown below:
Teriparatide (rDNA origin) is manufactured using a strain of Escherichia coli modified by recombinant DNA technology. FORTEO is supplied as a sterile, colorless, clear, isotonic solution in a glass cartridge which is pre-assembled into a disposable delivery device (pen) for subcutaneous injection. Each prefilled delivery device is filled with 2.7 mL to deliver 2.4 mL. Each mL contains 250 mcg teriparatide (corrected for acetate, chloride, and water content), 0.41 mg glacial acetic acid, 0.1 mg sodium acetate (anhydrous), 45.4 mg mannitol, 3 mg Metacresol, and Water for Injection. In addition, hydrochloric acid solution 10% and/or sodium hydroxide solution 10% may have been added to adjust the product to pH 4.
Each cartridge, pre-assembled into a delivery device, delivers 20 mcg of teriparatide per dose each day for up to 28 days.
What are the possible side effects of teriparatide (Forteo)?
Get emergency medical help if you have any of these signs of an allergic reaction: hives; difficulty breathing; swelling of your face, lips, tongue, or throat.
Stop using teriparatide and call your doctor at once if you have any of these serious side effects:
- feeling light-headed or fainting every time you inject this medicine;
- fast or pounding heartbeats every time you inject this medicine; or
- nausea, vomiting, constipation, and muscle weakness.
Less serious side effects may include:
- mild dizziness;
- pain, redness,...
Read All Potential Side Effects and See Pictures of Forteo »
What are the precautions when taking teriparatide (rdna origin) injection (Forteo)?
See also Warning section.
Before using teriparatide, tell your doctor or pharmacist if you are allergic to it; or if you have any other allergies. This product may contain inactive ingredients, which can cause allergic reactions or other problems. Talk to your pharmacist for more details.
Before using this medication, tell your doctor or pharmacist your medical history, especially of: other bone disorders (such as bone cancer), high level of calcium in the blood (hypercalcemia), kidney stones.
This drug may make you dizzy. Do not drive, use machinery, or do any activity that requires alertness until you are sure you can perform such activities safely. Limit alcoholic beverages.
To reduce the risk of dizziness and lightheadedness, get up slowly when rising...
Last reviewed on RxList: 5/22/2017
This monograph has been modified to include the generic and brand name in many instances.
Forteo FDA Prescribing Information
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Forteo - User Reviews
Forteo User Reviews
Now you can gain knowledge and insight about a drug treatment with Patient Discussions.
Here is a collection of user reviews for the medication Forteo sorted by most helpful.
Report Problems to the Food and Drug Administration
You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit the FDA MedWatch website or call 1-800-FDA-1088.
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text:
OS X as a Pentest Platform
i've recently gotten hold of a macbook and i gotta say that i'm totally lovin it. Now I have it running pretty well with kismet (yes that's kismet), nmap, metasploiot, ettercap etc... and all seems to be working well.
My question is, do any of you pentesters out there use a mac as your main pentest platform? or through experience have you found it to not be as flexible as Linux?
i've done a little testing in the week that i've had it and it seems to be working well but I just wondered if theres a "gotcha" just waiting to happen.
Any thoughts on this would be great.
p.s Has anyone read Johnny Long's book on OS X Hacking and if so was it any good?


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UFAD systems save energy and deliver better occupant comfort and indoor-air quality for certain applications
Although the number of applications for underfloor-air-distribution (UFAD) systems has increased over the years, the basic design concept for UFAD has not changed. UFAD systems utilize the space under an access floor as a supply-air plenum, taking advantage of thermal stratification to reduce energy use. The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) recommends that an occupied zone have a temperature of 73 to 77°F, a relative humidity of 25 to 60 ...
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The Irish Civil War and Society
In crafting his first published short story "The Sniper" O'Flaherty took as his setting and dramatic impetus an issue that he knew well: the Irish civil war of the early 1920s. In this story, two snipers on opposing sides of the conflict face off in a duel. The hero of the story prevails. He kills his enemy, thus assuring his survival, at least for the moment. Only after his enemy is dead, however, does the sniper make a startling revelation: the enemy sniper is his own brother.
The story does not address the problems of the civil war from any historical perspective; notably, O'Flaherty makes no mention of the Anglo-Irish Treaty that sparked the civil war or the ongoing problems the native Irish had with the British rulers. O'Flaherty need not do so, for the Irish and British reading audience in the 1920s was well versed in the ongoing troubles that surrounded Ireland and its relationship to the United Kingdom. Modern readers, as well as non-Irish readers, however, likely may need to be reminded that in the spring of 1922, fighting broke out in Ireland over the Anglo-Irish Treaty. This agreement would make southern Ireland an independent state within the British Commonwealth and leave the six counties in northern Ireland part of Great Britain. Free Staters, who supported the treaty, and Republicans, who opposed it, took up arms and fought for control of Ireland's government and national spirit.
O'Flaherty—who fought for the Republicans at the famous Four Courts rebellion—wrote "The Sniper" within months of this incident; "The Sniper" first appeared in a London magazine in January 1923. So, at the time of the story's writing and publication, the civil war was still going on. The Four Courts Building in Dublin, Ireland, seen here in 1922, is the location of the standoff described in the ''The Sniper'' cease-fire between the two Irish armies was not called until spring of that year. This detail of timing may cause readers to more closely examine O'Flaherty's story for a political message about the civil war. It also immediately renders more provocative O'Flaherty's choice to create a narrative with what A. A. Kelly, writing in Liam O'Flaherty: The Storyteller, calls a "controlled emotional response." Many readers will be struck by the sniper's emotional detachment from the violence around him and the very deaths that he causes. There are different reasons O'Flaherty may have chosen to treat the subject this way, however. By making the sniper less of an individual and more of a type character, O'Flaherty imbues him with him greater symbolic meaning. The sniper comes to represent all soldiers, both Republican and Free Starters. Indeed, the sniper could be any soldier, caught up in any deadly conflict. O'Flaherty's stylistic device also shows his lack of interest in using his writing as any sort of political propaganda. He does not try to use words and thoughts to win the reader into siding with the sniper, though the man served in the same army as O'Flaherty. Nor does he try to manipulate the reader into feeling that the sniper is a monster. Instead, with his carefully chosen words he presents the situation in as straightforward a manner as possible and then retreats, allowing the reader to draw conclusions. He even resists temptation to comment on the sniper's discovery that he has killed his brother. Instead, O'Flaherty ends the story on this devastating, potentially life-altering fact.
Such narrative detachment is in keeping with O'Flaherty's choice not to present an overall picture of the Irish civil war. O'Flaherty does not describe such incidents as the raging battles, the Four Courts seizure and bombing, or the assassinations of major leaders from both sides of the conflict. Instead, O'Flaherty creates only four characters—two of whom appear only briefly—and selects a few specific details that show the effects of the conflict on Irish society. O'Flaherty begins this task in his opening paragraph, describing the noise from the machine guns and rifles that "broke the silence of the night, spasmodically, like dogs barking." O'Flaherty also references the sniper's nearness to the "beleaguered Four Courts [where] the heavy guns roared." However, despite having comrades on the ground who work as a unit in their fight, the Republican sniper faces the conflict alone. He is pinned on a rooftop by the enemy sniper across the street and the armored cars and soldiers down below. Thus in a few sentences, O'Flaherty effectively sets the scene, both for the battle that lies ahead, as well as for the sniper's supreme isolation.
On the one...
(The entire section is 1912 words.)
The Position of Liam O'Flaherty
Liam O'Flaherty, at the age of thirty-two, has written five novels, four volumes of short stories, a biography and a large number of sketches and short stories soon to be gathered together in another collection. His reputation, however, is commensurate neither with this record of sustained creative energy nor with the easily recognizable distinction of his work. Literary popularity is never a matter of significance in speaking about a serious artist; but the reasons behind the critical apathy in the present instance are more interesting than usual. To consider them is to discover something about the mechanism of literary popularity at any time. It is also one excellent means of approaching certain of the essential features of this writer's contribution to the literature of our age. For the two things which are responsible for the neglect of O'Flaherty are at the same time inseparable from the deepest meaning and value of his work: his nationality and his fondness for melodrama.
The disadvantages of being an Irish writer today would be numerous even were it possible for the English reviews to be less loyal to their country and their class. Liam O'Flaherty has had at least as much to overcome in detaching himself from the settled mist of the "Celtic renaissance" as the writers of that movement had in detaching themselves from the earlier schools of Lever and Boucicault. The unfortunate result is that O'Flaherty has perhaps suffered more than he has gained by the association. It would seem pretty definite that the critical portion of the public is as avid of novelty as the common reader; and both certainly have had reason of late to become rather stalely habituated to the periodic emergence of ambitious talent in Ireland. At any rate an unmistakable tone of weariness has become the custom in whatever is written about this writer in the few literary journals which do not altogether ignore him. Actually, O'Flaherty's relation to the double tradition of Anglo-Irish literature is unique and distinct. He is on the side of Synge and Joyce, as against the side of Swift and Shaw; but he does not belong unreservedly with either of those writers. Neither intellectual refinement nor the impedimenta of culture and religion operate to confuse the complete identification with nature which is the predominant feature of his work. He is closer to the unknown writers of the early Gaelic folk literature than to any of his contemporaries. He is less the product of any modern school than of that period when European culture had not yet entirely lost its innocence.
There can be no question that all the novels of O'Flaherty belong to the category of melodrama; there can be equally little doubt that judgment of their value has been affected by the prevailing distrust of this mode. The objections to the mode have never been clearly formulated, although adherence to it has often been enough to discredit much of the work of Conrad and Dostoievski in the eyes of some critics. In the Greek sense, a melodrama meant simply a play with music; but the term was never used to differentiate such entertainment from a tragedy by Æschylus, for instance, which has nevertheless most of the objectionable features of a modern melodrama. Today we signify by the term any composition in which the element of action seems exaggerated or strained beyond certain vaguely determined limits. What we probably mean is the extension of action beyond the boundaries to which we are accustomed in normal social experience. This restriction may apply with considerable justice to certain works of drama and fiction of inferior merit; but applied to other more pretentious works of the imagination it seems to involve an inconsistency. Perhaps the misconception rests on a failure to determine the nature of the relationship between action and theme, on the failure to recognize that the treatment of certain themes requires the extension of action on a more strenuous and heroic plane than the normal.
Melodrama, so considered, might be accepted as the elaboration of human motives on a grand scale, against immense backgrounds, and to the accompaniment of enormous music. In terms of function, one might discover in this form the most appropriate medium for the working out of certain crises or highly intensified human situations, the proper conditions for which depend on a heightening of the common laws of circumstance. However, any such defense of melodrama as a legitimate mode has nothing to do with its value in comparison with other recognized modes or with any possible system of values of its own. It is possible to write good melodramas, like Macbeth or The Duchess of Malfi; it is also possible to write bad melodramas, like any number of plays written in Shakespeare's time or like any number of books written in our own. It is part of O'Flaherty's distinction as a novelist that he has had the courage, throughout all his five novels, to adopt what is at once the most dangerous and the most unpopular of literary modes.
The fact that all of O'Flaherty's novels, from Thy Neighbour's Wife to The Assassin, adhere to the one mode suggests that it is inevitable for the particular pattern of life that has shaped itself in his imagination. His themes dictate the choice, themes which resolve themselves always into the larger and more violent conflicts of melodrama. Should this explanation prove insufficient, there remains the exceptional nature of the background against which these themes are represented. Modern Ireland is a portion of the earth's surface which it would be necessary to imagine if it did not exist. The Aran Islands, in which O'Flaherty was born, are not unlike those western islands around which Odysseus sailed and adventured; and Dublin, in the civilized modern mind, often takes on the colors of the Elizabethan version of the Italian cities of the Renaissance. It is clear that whatever temperamental predilection O'Flaherty may have had toward the writing of melodrama was strengthened by the inherent conditions of his environment.
For convenience O'Flaherty's work may be divided into those novels and tales which have Dublin, and those which have his native Aran, for their setting. Of the Dublin group, The Informer, The Assassin, and two earlier stories, "The Sniper" and "Civil War," are based on real or imagined circumstances of the period of insurrection and disorder through which that city has passed in the last twelve years. As a whole they constitute the most remarkable record of the period which we are likely to receive: the most complete because derived largely from personal observation and participation; the most reliable because written without any other bias than that of artistic selection.
The Informer, as the title suggests, is a novel of the revolutionary half-world, the story of Gypo Nolan who betrays his friend to the police for twenty pounds. Less than one page is devoted to the actual capture and death of the betrayed man. All the interest is centered on the subsequent psychological history of The Informer; his failure to liberate himself from the consciousness of the crime except through the expiation of death...
(The entire section is 2951 words.)


text: With Wyo's help and guidance, we set up my first hive today with a swarm we collected last weekend. So far, they are adapting well to there new home. They don't seem to like my black German Shepard much. He got stung a few times as he walked by the hive. It is a pretty large colony from what Wyo told me. I noticed this afternoon bees returning loaded Pretty heavy with lots of pollen. I guess thats a good thing..Thanks again Wyo!!


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persistent self-diagnosis from an unlikely combination of symptoms found only in the world's most unreliable dictionary.
"Oh no! He's not 'phoned in again on a sickie, has he? What's the flakey git found out he's suffering from now? I reckon he's got a severe case of the wikichondrias."
by JJJJJimmyP September 24, 2009


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The Following article, excerpted below, appeared in the Dallas Morning News (8/7/06):
"Away from headlines about Iraq, Israel and immigration, the Bush administration is betting the farm on another issue: ramping up America's scientific and technological IQ…The plan contains several elements, the latest being the panel Education Secretary Margaret Spellings recently appointed to determine how schools can best teach math…."
"Make math and science relevant. Kids spend their days living in a world of computers and technology, Dr. Orsak [Southern Methodist University's engineering dean] says, but most of their science classes focus on the natural world. Schools need to get them into experiments that relate to their lives…."
"Curriculum also matters. Not only does rigor count; years of math and science instruction should build upon one another. Abilities to master calculus start in elementary school, where children should acquire the skills that will allow them to progress into algebra, geometry and calculus…."
"By coming up with ways to make math relevant, the Bush panel can build up America's scientific base so we stay atop a world that spins on the brains of problem solvers and imaginative thinkers."
For the complete article, please visit:
dws/dn/opinion/editorials/stories/D N-orsak_07edi.ART.State.Edition1.2c14b5b.html
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