text: Home > Products/Tools > Hand Tools > Q&A: Cordless Tool Trigger Guards Hand Tools Q&A: Cordless Tool Trigger Guards Yet Another Raining Ceiling By Dave Crosby Login or Register to download the PDF version of this article. (252.41 kB) A.Tool editor Dave Crosby responds: I called several cordless tool manufacturers about your question, and it seems that the disappearance of the trigger guard is a change in style as much as anything. To keep your cordless driver-drill from running by itself in your hammer loop or nail bag, try putting the forward/reverse selector in the midway, or "neutral," position. Some tools are intentionally designed by the manufacturers to lock the trigger in this position. Most tools, even if not specifically designed to do so, will resist light to moderate trigger pressure with the selector set halfway between forward and reverse.But heavy pressure on certain tools will allow the selector to engage one way or the other, so even though this usually works, it's obviously a compromise. If your particular tool isn't designed to actually lock the trigger securely, there could be a safety consideration here, so if you decide to do this, use care. As for bringing this common... Login or Register to continue reading


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Tresmere, Cornwall Genealogy
Parish History
TRESMEER (St. Nicholas), a parish, in the union of Launceston, N. division of the hundred of East, E. division of Cornwall, 7½ miles (W. by N.) from Launceston. Here is a place of worship for Wesleyans. [1]
Tresmere (or Tresmeer)(Cornish: Trewasmeur) St Nicholas is an Ancient Parish in the county of Cornwall. The church is at OS Grid Ref SX233874 and was dedicated in September 1505 to St Winwolus, who was the first Abbot of Landevenac in France; he is said to have died in AD 504.
Civil Registration
Births, marriages and deaths were kept by the government from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is Free BMD.
Church records
Overview, Include information for parish registers and Bishop's Transcripts, Contact information for the office holding the original records, Links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection.
Images of parish registers are available online in historic records (formerly Record Search) Images refer to Cornwall County Record Office reference: P 232
Cornwall Online Parish Clerks
An extremely useful resource is the Cornwall Online Parish Clerks page for the parish http://www.cornwall-opc.org/Par_new/t_z/tresmere.php
Census records
Census records from 1841 to 1911 are available online. For access, see England Census Records and Indexes Online. Census records from 1841 to 1891 are also available on film through a Family History Center or at the Family History Library.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~kayhin/1802.html transcript of 1891 census
Poor Law Unions
Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to [county] Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.
Maps and Gazetteers
There are many maps and gazetteers showing English places. Valuable web sites are:
- England Jurisdictions 1851
- Vision of Britain
Web sites
Add here any relevant sites that aren't mentioned above.
- ↑ Lewis, Samuel A., A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 390-392. Date accessed: 23 March 2013

subset: commoncrawl


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Yuliya (ID: 72057)
Date of birth:July 08, 1994
Height:5' 2" (160 cm)
Weight:96 lb (44 kg)
Hair color:brunette
Eyes color:brown
Marital status:single
Education:incomplete higher education
English language:Using dictionary
Others foreign languages:No
Seeks partner:23 - 65 years old
Total photos:13
Bikini photos:0
Hobbies and interests:
Among my hobbies is fashion as I like to stay stylish. Also I go in for ball dancing, I even have some prizes from several competitions). I take part in students life. They say that I am mature, no wonder, I have very good parents who taught me a lot!
About me:
I have many friends as I am friendly,I am serious, I am mature, I am very kind-hearted and loving. I do my best to make my every day as interesting as it is possible as I value every day of this life). I can say that in general I am a very happy person and I would like to share my happiness with you)
Looking For Men Type:
I am looking for a nice man whows what he wants and who would value what he has. I need a wise man. By the way, I am not afraid of age difference, I believe that if people love each othe, age difference doesn`t exist.
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General comments or questions: Contact Us


text: Hey guys, New forum member here. I'm an almost-40, amply-sized guy from the south, plump you might say, who was just gifted some brown sperry topsiders. They're fine shoes and fit well, but I'm not sure what to wear with them. How can you compose an outfit to look ok with boat shoes? I tend to wear jeans or khakis with either polos or sportshirts most of the time. Any advice or images would be appreciated. Thanks! Darth Chipmunk


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At 46, Bernard Hopkins ready to face Chad Dawson
NEW YORK Bernard Hopkins is moving as fast as ever.
The 46-year-old light heavyweight champ won a big bout in late May, will defend his title in October, and wants to fight again in January.
Hopkins will face 29-year-old Chad Dawson in Los Angeles on Oct. 15 with his WBC belt on the line.
"I didn't want to sit," Hopkins said Tuesday after a news conference in New York. "Not at 46."
Hopkins is already thinking about what's next. He wants a rematch against undefeated Joe Calzaghe, to whom he lost in a split decision in 2008. The only problem is the Welshman retired 2 years ago.
He also would like to be the first boxing star to fight at the Barclays Center, the future Brooklyn home of the NBA's Nets.
But next up is Dawson, who's 30-1 with his lone loss coming to Jean Pascal last year. Hopkins beat Pascal in May to become the oldest fighter to win a major world championship.
"I don't see any way he can beat me," Dawson said.
Dawson described his boxing style as "laid back," and Hopkins immediately started talking about how he needed to get his opponent to fight out of character. That would make it a better bout, dialing up the buzz around Hopkins. And, of course, that would probably increase the odds of victory for Hopkins, who readily acknowledges trying to get into Dawson's head.
"If he's coming to the table only with the mentality that he's younger and he's stronger," Hopkins said, "then he's already lost."


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Queensland Premier Campbell Newman has asked the Liberal National Party to suspend embattled backbencher Scott Driscoll until investigations against the Redcliffe MP are complete.
Mr Driscoll has been accused of using his electorate office to run a taxpayer-funded community organisation. He has also been accused of misleading parliament over his involvement with the body.
Mr Newman said the allegations against Mr Driscoll were becoming a distraction for the LNP government and he decided to ask the LNP executive to suspend Mr Driscoll's party membership.
He said Mr Driscoll could return to the LNP party room if he was cleared.
"I believe until these matters are resolved it is appropriate Mr Driscoll's party membership be suspended," he said.
Last week a whistleblower went to the state's anti-corruption body, the Crime and Misconduct Commission, alleging Mr Driscoll had direct control of the Regional Community Association in Moreton Bay, with tens of thousands of dollars in consultancy fees paid to his wife.
It is unclear whether there was any new information made available to the Newman government that resulted in Mr Driscoll being suspended from the LNP.
The Newman government had been standing by Mr Driscoll in parliament last week, saying there was nothing untoward in his relationship with the community organisation.
Mr Newman told state parliament the campaign against Mr Driscoll was like an "Easter egg hunt".
The latest event is another blow to the Newman government, which celebrated its first anniversary on the weekend.
In Mr Newman's first year as premier, three ministers have resigned and three MPs have defected to the cross benches. Mr Driscoll will sit on the cross benches in parliament until or if he is cleared.
Mr Newman said Mr Driscoll did not have to vote with the LNP government in parliament but he would be surprised if he didn't.
The LNP still holds a substantial majority in state parliament with 74 out of 89 seats.
Opposition Leader Annastacia Palszczuk said the Newman government needed to come clean on why it had distanced itself from Mr Driscoll.
"What has changed now? What is the new evidence? It has taken the Premier over two months to take responsibility for Mr Driscoll," she said.
The Australian Financial Review


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The assistant police chief in Nogales, Sonora, and his bodyguard were killed late Thursday in a barrage of gunfire.
Adalberto Padilla Molina and his bodyguard, Iván Sepúlveda Espino, were driving in a minivan in central Nogales on Periférico Luis Donaldo Colosio and El Greco Boulevard when three people in a gray Ford pickup truck opened fire with AK-47s, said Jose Larrinaga, a spokesman for the Sonora prosecutor's office.
The shooting occurred at 9:45 p.m. near a shopping center parking lot about three miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border. A 17-year-old boy who was standing outside a nearby funeral home was injured as he tried to avoid the gunfire and is in stable condition, Larrinaga said.
Padilla and his bodyguard didn't have a chance to shoot back or avoid the attack, Larrinaga said. Padilla, who has a military background, took over as assistant police chief on Dec. 3.
He is the second high-ranking law-enforcement officer killed in the past two years in Nogales, Sonora.
On Nov. 3, 2008, gunmen ambushed the director of Sonora's state police, Juan Manuel Pavón Félix, with guns and grenades as he entered his hotel in central Nogales alongside his bodyguard and other law-enforcement officials.
On Feb. 27, 2007, Agua Prieta Police Chief Ramón Tacho Verdugo was also killed.
"It's very disturbing that they are targeting the upper command of law enforcement," said Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada. "It's got to be sending a very chilling effect to the officers that are working under him."
The fact that an innocent bystander was shot shows the danger of the situation, he said.
"Something definitely has to be done," Estrada said. "It's just completely out of control."
Drug-related killings have skyrocketed in Nogales, Sonora, in the past three years as drug cartels vie for the prized corridor while Mexican law enforcement attempts to weaken them.
There were 136 homicides in 2009, up from 126 in 2008 and 52 in 2007.
Through March 23 of this year, there have been 79 killings, according to a tally maintained by El Imparcial newspaper in Sonora.
The violence has landed the border city on the U.S. State Department's travel warning.
In the new warning, the city of Nogales, Sonora, is mentioned twice for drug-related violence, as it was in the travel alert updated on Feb. 22.
The State Department has offered family members of officials at the U.S. Consulate in Nogales, Sonora, monetary assistance until mid-April to relocate family members because of the violence.
Padilla spoke to the Arizona Daily Star in mid-December about the raging drug violence in Nogales, Sonora.
He said residents should be cautious but not worried because the battles are nearly exclusively between criminals or target law-enforcement officials.
Padilla at the time insisted that municipal, state and federal police were collaborating to contain the drug cartels.
"These events alarm the public, but the public should have confidence in their authorities," Padilla said during the interview.
"We are attacking this head-on. We are not sitting here with our arms crossed."
Contact reporter Brady McCombs at 573-4213 or firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Whether one is building or remodeling their home, they are probably looking for ways that they can inject their unique personality into the home to give it a one of a kind look and feel. This often applies to both the inside and outside elements of the home. A great way to express style with a unique, yet classic feel is to use wrought iron in the design of your house. Whether one chooses to adorn their yard with wrought iron gates or grace their foyer with a wrought iron staircase, they are sure to make an impression with family and guests alike.
A wrought iron gate at the front of the home is both attractive, yet functional. One may choose to enclose their entire yard in iron. This adds security to the home, but can also be nice to look at. There are many designs that can be incorporated into the gates or fences and the way that the iron is actually formed. One can order fencing with a customizable design, or choose from a pre-fabricated one. Regardless, a wrap around wrought iron fence or gate can be absolutely gorgeous to look at it. In addition, this metal in incredibly strong and will last for decades. It can discourage trespassers, wandering neighborhood animals, and promote home security.
The feature can be carried to the front steps or porch of the home with wrought iron handrails. These sturdy pieces will remain in place for years to come and are especially great for the elderly or others who might require assistance with stairs. They are very unlikely to loosen or break, increasing safety. Their charming appearance can accentuate gates or fencing, or simply look great on their own accord as well. Iron is in a universal color that matches great with any paint, siding, or building material.
The medium can be brought indoors with a dazzling wrought iron staircase. Like a gate, fence, or handrail, the metal can be shaped into an intricate design, easily becoming the centerpiece of the room. Sturdy yet beautiful, it is a wonderful addition to the home, whether a simple cape or a sprawling mansion. Central staircases as well as small or back stairways can be brightened with this strong metal.
Wrought iron is a delightful building material that beings unique beauty, security, and safety to any home or even a business. If one is building or remodeling, they simply must consider adding these distinctive features to their construction.


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News: Editors
A ruling in an animal abuse case in Oregon should have far-reaching ramifications because the Supreme Court of that state ruled recently that pets are not just "mere" property. The case involved the conviction of a dog owner who was starving her pet. In this instance the owner had appealed her conviction for second-degree neglect because a veterinarian had drawn the dog's blood (without her permission).
According to the Court's summary of the case:
The case at issue began in 2010, when an informant told the Oregon Humane Society that Amanda L. Newcomb was beating her dog, failing to properly feed it and keeping it in a kennel for many hours a day. An animal-cruelty investigator went to Newcomb's apartment in December 2010 and, once invited in, saw "Juno" in the yard with "no fat on his body." The dog, the investigator reported, "was kind of eating at random things in the yard, and trying to vomit."
The investigator asked why, and Newcomb said she was out of dog food but that she was going to get more that night, according to the summary of the case.
The investigator believed that defendant had neglected Juno. He asked her for permission to take the dog in for medical care, but defendant, who thought her dog looked healthy, refused and became irate. The officer therefore took protective custody of Juno without defendant's consent, both as evidence of the neglect and because of the "strong possibility" that Juno needed medical treatment. He transported Juno to the Humane Society, where Juno would be housed and medically treated as appropriate. From medical tests, the officer expected also to be able to determine whether neglect charges were warranted or whether Juno should be returned to defendant.
The vet gave Juno food, charted his weight and measured his rapid weight gain over several days. The vet also drew Juno's blood and ruled out any disease. The investigator concluded nothing was wrong with the dog other than it was very hungry.
Newcomb was then convicted of second-degree animal neglect, a misdemeanor. Among other problems with the conviction, Newcomb argued, authorities violated her constitutional rights to be protected from unreasonable searches of property by drawing blood from her dog. Under Oregon law, animals are defined as property.
The prosecutor Adam Gibbs had argued that taking the dog to the veterinarian office was similar to care in suspected child-abuse cases. And further argued that a dog is not a container—like an inanimate piece of property—that requires a warrant. Rather, Gibbs argued that a dog "doesn't contain anything"—and that what's inside a dog is just "more dog."
The Supreme Court's ruling agreed with his, stating that the chemical composition of Juno's blood was not "information" that Newcomb "placed in Juno for safekeeping or to conceal from view."
And concluded that the "defendant had no protected privacy interest in Juno's blood that was invaded by the medical procedures performed." And while dogs are considered personal property in Oregon, the ownership rights aren't the same as with inanimate property, imposing other limits. "Those limitations, too, are reflections of legal and social norms. Live animals under Oregon law are subject to statutory welfare protections that ensure their basic minimum care, including veterinary treatment. The obligation to provide that minimum care falls on any person who has custody and control of a dog or other animal."
Also interestingly the court added,
"As we continue to learn more about the interrelated nature of all life, the day may come when humans perceive less separation between themselves and other living beings than the law now reflects. However, we do not need a mirror to the past or a telescope to the future to recognize that the legal status of animals has changed and is changing still[.]"
See the full opinion here.
News: Guest Posts
Prompt park officials in Arizona to ban dogs
The city of Phoenix is now banning dogs from hiking trails when it hits 100 degrees at the parks.
Under the pilot program, which went into effect July 1 and runs through Sept. 1, someone who disobeys the rule could be cited for a Class One misdemeanor, be fined up to $2,500 and receive up to six months jail time. Phoenix officials say they are emphasizing the educational aspect of the program and not the punitive measures.
Phoenix has some of the largest municipal parks in the country with 15-mile trails that cut through desert that is beautiful but shadeless during the summer.
Summertime temps in the metro Phoenix area can easily reach 110 during the day and stay warm throughout the night, hovering around the mid to upper 80s. In 2015, there were 88 days when daytime temperatures were 100 degrees or higher.
Although the parks open at sunrise, it is not uncommon for runners, hikers and cyclists to be on the trails even during the hottest parts of the day. Already this year, six people have died on area trails and there have been reports of dog deaths but no statistics are kept in that area. Frequently, dogs who are overtaken by the heat are taken to nearby vets or emergency-animal clinics for care.
In 2011, three dogs died on trails in the nearby city of Glendale. The only way the city knew about those deaths was because its fire department was called to help the dogs. "For everyone incident reported, we believe there are dozens of animal fatalities that we don't hear about,'' said Sue Breding, Glendale spokeswoman.
Kristen Nelson, DVM, a Phoenix area veterinarian, said one Labrador recently came into her clinic with a temperature of over 107. The dog's owners had taken him hiking at 2 p.m. during the day when it was over 100 degrees outside. The dog had collapsed on the trail and died two days later after many of his organs gave out.
In many southwestern cities like in Phoenix, dogs can overheat at any time of the year, says Aaron Franko, DVM, at BluePearl Veterinary Partners.
At end of February, he had a Labrador mixed breed dog come in who was suffering heat stroke. "It was a very warm day,'' Franko said.
"People don't realize how fast dogs can get overheated and into trouble,'' he added.
All dogs can be bothered by the heat but some types are pre-disposed to problems, Franko said. Those types include short-nosed breeds such as Bulldogs, Pugs and Boston Terriers as well as dogs with underlying heart disease, older dogs and those with thicker coats.
If it is warm outside, people need to bring water for their dogs and if it is hot, they need to avoid taking them out at all, Franko said.
He estimates that his central Phoenix emergency clinic sees five or more heat-stressed dogs a week. "And we are just one emergency clinic here.''
Many veterinarians say that the summertime heat danger to dogs can't be emphasized enough to people with pets. The Arizona Humane Society says it can easily receive up to 50 a calls a day during the summer for animal rescues and investigations. Up to half of those involve animals who don't have enough water or shade to deal with the heat.
Phoenix city officials believe this may be one of the few times municipal trails have been closed to dogs because of heat. Many U.S. national parks prohibit even leashed dogs on trails because the dogs may endanger themselves or area wildlife. Parks from Portland, Ore. to Maine have closed dog-friendly trails for various reasons including protecting the ecosystem and safeguarding nearby livestock.
News: Editors
[Article Update]
Pat Summitt, the legendary basketball coach who brought women's basketball to new heights, died at the age of 64. She had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease at 58.
Not only did she have an amazingly successful career with the University of Tennessee's Lady Vols, but she was an inspiration both on and off the court to her players, all of whom also graduated, school officials said. She coached for almost 40 years, and started her career as coach when she was only 22 years old. She also inspired a variable Who's Who in women's sports, see this sampling of head coaches with ties to her.
Not only that, but her toughness, resilience—and love for her dogs—was demonstrated in 2008 when she dislocated her shoulder while forearming a raccoon off her deck to protect her Lab, Sally.
Her son, Tyler Summitt, issued a statement Tuesday morning saying his mother died peacefully at Sherrill Hill Senior Living in Knoxville surrounded by those who loved her most.
"Since 2011, my mother has battled her toughest opponent, early onset dementia, 'Alzheimer's Type,' and she did so with bravely fierce determination just as she did with every opponent she ever faced," Tyler Summitt said. "Even though it's incredibly difficult to come to terms that she is no longer with us, we can all find peace in knowing she no longer carries the heavy burden of this disease."
[This following post appeared in 2011]
Pat Summitt is one gutsy woman, not only is she the winningest NCAA basketball coach in history (male or female) but this week she announced she has been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's at 59. Her talents, on and off the court, are near and dear to our hearts and we were thrilled when we had the opportunity to interview her about how dogs have inspired her and her style of coaching. Not only that, but her toughness, resilience—and love for her dogs—was demonstrated three years ago when she dislocated her shoulder while forearming a raccoon off her deck to protect her Lab, Sally. We wish her, and her family, well—and hope that she will continue to inspire her players and all those who love the game of basketball.
News: Guest Posts
An international group of scientists proposes dual domestication from wolves.
Among the many hotly debated topics related to the appearance of dogs in the lives of humans is how often and where it first occurred. In their landmark 1997 paper on dog origins, Robert K. Wayne, Carles Vilá, and their colleagues made the case for multiple origins, but many other students of dog evolution, including Peter Savolainen, a co-author on that paper, have repeatedly and strongly argued for a single place of origin.
In this week's Science magazine (June 3, 2016) [the article is available here, gratis], Laurent Frantz of Oxford University's ancient dog program, writing for more than a score of his colleagues from institutions around the world, presents the case for dual domestication of Paleolithic wolves in Western Eurasia and Eastern Asia. According to this hypothesis, a now extinct ancestral wolf split into at least two genetically distinct populations on opposite sides of the Eurasian continent where they encountered and joined forces with humans to become dogs.
Frantz and his coauthors pin much of their argument on analysis and comparison of the fully sequenced genome of a 4,800- year old dog unearthed at Newgrange, Ireland, to other ancient and modern dogs and modern wolves. They found it retained "a degree of ancestry" different from modern dogs or modern wolves. Using that and other evidence the researchers argue that the most comprehensive model for the appearance of the dog involves at least two domestication events 15,000 or more years ago. Frantz writes: "The eastern dog population then dispersed westward alongside humans at some point between 6,400 and 14,000 years ago, into Western Europe (10,11, 20), where they partially replaced an indigenous Paleolithic dog population. Our hypothesis reconciles previous studies that have suggested that domestic dogs originated either in East Asia (9, 19) or in Europe (7)."
I asked Greger Larson, co-director of the Oxford project and corresponding author on the paper, just what were the boundaries of "Western Eurasia," comprised apparently of Europe and the Middle East, and "Eastern Asia?" He answered in an email that the boundaries were left deliberately vague because where wolves became dogs remains unknown, like the date itself.
In Science, Frantz writes: [W]e calculated the divergence time between two modern Russian wolves used in the study and the modern dogs to be 60,000 to 20,000 years ago." The first number puts the dog in the time when Neanderthal was still the big kid on the European block, raising the possibility that Neanderthal had protodogs or that early modern humans came to Europe with dogs or soon allied with wolves. Either of the first two prospects must have set off alarms in some circles for Frantz cautions that those dates should not be taken as "a time frame for domestication" because the wolves they used may not have been "closely related to the population(s) that gave rise to dogs."
Fundamentally, this paper is at once a bold attempt to come up with a workable hypothesis to explain the appearance of the dog in human affairs and a tentative step into troubled waters. Left unanswered are virtually all outstanding questions regarding the who, what, when, where, and why of the transformation of wolves to dogs. Geographically all it does is exclude Central Asia. Whether it does so wrongly may depend on how you define Central Asia geographically.
What makes it bold and radical even is the suggestion that early humans and wolves could have gotten together wherever and whenever they met on the trail of the big game they were following. There are many reasons for that including similar social and familial cultures, but humans and wolves could have joined forces to have become more successful hunters. We learn from Wolves on the Hunt: The Behavior of Wolves Hunting Prey by L. David Mech, Douglas W. Smith, and Daniel R. MacNulty (Chicago, 2016) that while wolves appear excellent at finding and trailing game, they are not very good at making the kill, succeeding perhaps half the time. It is dangerous work at which humans with their weapons excel.
Imagine the scene: Human hunters locate wolves on the hunt by watching ravens who are known to follow them. Human hunters move in for the kill and take as many animals as they can. If smart, they might share immediately with the wolves. If not, the wolves might consume what the humans do not carry off or follow them back to their encampment to take what they can.
The rest is a tale of accommodation through socialization—the ability to bond with another being—and all that entails.
This article originally appeared in Psychology Today's Dog's Best Friend, used with permission.
News: Editors
The Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) is proposing a roughly 90 percent reduction in its off-leash space. And we have only until May 25 to comment on this draconian proposal.
The GGNRA oversees more than 80,000 acres of the Northern California coastline, and of this, dogs have only been allowed on approximately 1 percent. Their proposed new Dog Management Plan will reduce that smidgen by 90 percent, which is a significant hit.
Although a unit of the Dept. of the Interior's National Park Service, GGNRA is in a decidedly different category than the more traditional parks such as Yellowstone or Yosemite. From its inception in 1972, it has been charged with balancing habitat protection with recreational activities that predated its creation: "To provide for the maintenance of needed recreational open space." Foremost among those activities was (and is) off-leash dog-walking. One of the groundbreaking 1970s "parks for the people," GGNRA serves a densely populated metropolitan area and is an invaluable resource for locals and visitors alike, providing access to outdoor recreation for millions of people each year.
For many of us, especially women and seniors, off-leash recreation with our dogs is our only form of exercise. We don't kayak, bike, run or cross-train. What we do—from time immemorial, it seems—is simply walk with our unfettered dogs, enjoying the regenerative benefits of spending time outside. We also acknowledge that a balance needs to be met with respect to other park users and the natural resources that we all value.
But we believe that an acceptable balance was not adequately taken into consideration during GGNRA's rule-making deliberations. Rather, opinions and desires expressed by special-interest groups such as the Sierra Club and Audubon Society and prominent donors held greater sway than those of local elected officials and the many thousands of off-leash advocates (and other park users) they represent. And because this is thought to be a precedent setting judgment, it can (and will) be used against off-leash activity is other areas throughout the country.
During two recent public meetings held by the GGNRA and chaired by park superintendent, Christine Lernertz, in response to questions about how they regard the opposition from the vast majority of residents, local elected officials and humane organizations, Lernertz brushed those questions off and referred to GGNRA's "national" status, meaning they are a park for the whole nation. (She did though reference their concern about tourists from other countries, and what would they feel about seeing dogs on beaches.) So if indeed the GGNRA is a national resource for all of us, they need to hear from all of us from both inside and outside the area.
Your comments are needed now and due before May 25:
What do I say in my comment?
· See talking points and sample comments here, or here or see the one below.
· Consider making the point, in your own words. If you are outside the Bay Area, tell them where you are located and how important the issue of off leash recreation is to you, especially in public land owned by the federal government. Your voice matters too.
How do I submit my comment?
General Sample Comment Letter
"I am writing to voice my opposition to the highly restrictive proposed rule for dog management at the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA). It was established by Congress as a national recreation are—not a national park. Banning dog walking recreation from nearly all of the GGNRA is a violation of public trust and the unit's enabling legislation.
These significant restrictions to dog walking are being proposed without any evidence that dog walking is causing actual impacts to GGNRA's natural resources or visitor experience.
I am especially opposed to the provision that would give GGNRA's superintendent a blank check to ban dogs without any sort of public input process and before any impacts from dogs occur.
I strongly urge the National Park Service to rethink its proposed rule for dog walking at GGNRA. Please take into account the input and concerns of the thousands of people in this country that are opposing this plan."
Also see:
Good Dog: Behavior & Training
Even more surprising, it's a Great Dane
We all know that rescue people are called in to save cats from trees. It's not even that unusual for kids to need help getting back down to earth from time to time. However, when firefighters were called to help a Great Dane who was stuck in a tree, they thought it was a prank—until they arrived and saw Kora, all 120 pounds of her perched 20 feet high in a huge tree.
Her guardians don't know how Kora managed to get up so high in that tree. They do know that she loves to wander and that she chases small animals, so their best guess is that some little critter enticed her to jump a five-foot fence and climb so high in the tree that she couldn't get down.
To rescue her, the first plan was to encourage her to come down the way that she had come up, but Kora vetoed that idea. Plan B involved putting her in a harness and lowering her to the ground. That proved partially effective, until the harness broke as she neared the ground. The rescuers were prepared for that possibility, though, and when she fell, she landed safely in the net being held under her.
To many people, the most fascinating part of this story is that such a large, lanky dog was able to climb a tree and get herself in this mess in the first place. As interesting as that is to me, what really caught my attention is how unfazed Kora was by the whole incident. I can imagine her trying to figure out why everyone was making such a big to-do.
After she hopped out of the net, she walked away without seeming particularly stressed. Many dogs would be completely freaked out by the experience, but Kora appeared remarkably well adjusted and stable. Her behavior did not suggest she was traumatized or even upset by her ordeal.
With an attitude like that, I suspect that "Kora the Explorer" will continue to have interesting adventures!
Dog's Life: Humane
How simple, innovative changes can improve shelter and adoption rates.
In journalist Kim Kavin's book, The Dog Merchants, she investigates the complex businesses and networks involved in the buying and selling and "homing" of dogs: breeders, pet stores, pet brokers, the AKC, local shelters and rescue organizations. It is her goal to advance the conversation on how dogs are treated, from puppy mills to high-kill shelters. In the following excerpt, Kavin explains how rebranding shelter dogs can make them more desirable and, therefore, adoptable.
Her face is pallid, probably not just in the black-and-white photograph, but also in real life. She's looking back over her right shoulder at the camera with eyes desperately wide and bloodshot. Nobody has to hear her speak to know she needs to be set free. "Chained to a desk with nothing but a mouse to entertain her," the flier's big type reads.
In another flier, it's a male, also pale-faced and hunched over. He looks as if the air all around has become so thick, so stagnant, that he can no longer bear to rise. The corners of his mouth are turned down, darn near weighted by jowls. "For nine hours a day, he is kept in a tiny box," it states. "And ignored."
These fliers aren't of dogs. They're of people—models photographed sitting in office conference rooms and in the glow of a cubicle's computer screen, wearing the dismayed expressions shared by so many nine-to-five prisoners of concrete jungles, all as part of a groundbreaking campaign called the "Human Walking Program."
It sprang from the brain of Jake Barrow, a creative director in the Melbourne, Australia, office of GPY&R, a creative agency that is 600 people strong with a network of 186 global agencies. Barrow and his colleagues typically work on campaigns for big-ticket clients including the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival and Australia's Defence Force, but he had an idea that had been in the back of his mind for a few years, and no matter how many times he tried to turn it off, it kept lighting him right back up.
"We were going through a busy period at work, and occasionally, I would walk a friend's dog just for fun," Barrow says. "And I thought, 'Oh, that could be a service for office workers, to go out and walk a dog, completely to benefit the human.' That was years and years ago, and I just remembered the feeling I got from walking that dog, and it was really good stress relief. It was completely selfish. I've been trained to recognize a good idea, and together with my copywriter at the time, we turned it into the Human Walking Program."
There was no client. No income was to be made. That didn't stop Barrow and his partner, who worked pro bono on the concept for six months and built it into a small presentation, sort of a miniature version of what they might do for a regular advertising customer. Then they asked one of the account salesmen at GPY&R to call the local shelter in Melbourne— which happens to be The Lost Dogs Home, founded in 1910 and today serving as Australia's largest, caring for more than 31,000 dogs and cats each year.
"I said, 'Hi, I'm Jake, this is Dan, we have this idea,'" Barrow recalls with a laugh. "They definitely saw the benefit of showing the dogs as the heroes instead of just sad. We did completely flip it around and say, 'It's about the humans getting out of their cages.'"
Shelter workers gave the GPY&R fliers to commuters from 8 'til 9 a.m. in central business district train stations the week of the event, and they passed them around at all the buildings near the park where the walk would be held. Social media and radio stations were engaged as well, to spread the message that humans needed a break and a stroll—"to go walkies," as they say Down Under—perhaps even more than the dogs did.
When the day arrived, the weather was gorgeous. Barrow, like everyone else involved, found himself standing in a park, waiting with a rumbly stomach, wondering what the heck might happen next.
"We were quite nervous," he recalls. "Are we going to get the crowds we want? Is it going to be too big of a crowd? Is somebody going to get bitten by a dog? There were a lot of unknowns. You can only do so much planning for these things."
During the next few hours, his unease gave way to elation. More than 5,000 office workers came outside to stand right alongside him, leaving behind their ergonomically accented desks for a much-needed meander the way nature intended. The Lost Dogs Home paired each participant with a homeless pooch so they could get to know one another in the fresh air, outside the shelter environment, in a way that would all but obliterate any ingrained ideas about the dogs and let them be seen as the happy, friendly pups they had always been inside their enclosures, where most of the people would have never seen them at all, or might have assumed there was something wrong with them.
"Their negative stereotype still exists, in our experience, because people do not realize that cats and dogs largely end up at shelters as a consequence of a human circumstance," says Martha Coro, a spokeswoman for The Lost Dogs Home. "The Human Walking Program was first and foremost a creative campaign that challenged people's intrinsic beliefs about lost and abandoned animals, [and] that also engaged a real-life event to tie it all together."
After the three-hour walk, amazing things happened. Every one of the dogs got adopted. Hits on the shelter's online adoption pages spiked 42 percent. A fund-raising appeal one month later became the shelter's highest-grossing in nearly a decade. Barrow says it was one of the most satisfying days of his life—and even he failed to predict the impact his idea would have next.
"We did the event and the campaign, and whenever we do something more unusual than a television commercial, we create a case study, and we did that with this event and how successful it was," he says. "Somehow, the website Upworthy got hold of the case study, and the next thing you know, we had half a million hits on this case-study video, and we're getting calls from all over the world wanting to do a Human Walking Program in their own cities. We ended up saying we can't ignore it, so we set up a website that lets people create their own Human Walking Program. People can download all the ads and localize them to their area. It's a step-by-step guide. I know someone did one all the way over in the U.S. The calls were coming from everywhere."
What's so great about thehumanwalkingprogram.org— in addition to the fact that it hands over, for free to the world, what Barrow estimates as an $80,000 to $100,000 creative campaign—is that it also makes clear how to copy the strategy as much as the actual walk.
"The creative rebranding of adoption dogs came first," Coro says, "which in a way [was] just as influential as the event." And she's right. What sets the Human Walking Program apart on a crucial level is its professional marketing approach. It was developed by seasoned pros, as an advertising initiative that helped people get to know the product—great dogs— instead of making a desperate plea for money to save their tragic little lives. Beliefs about homeless pooches are often so deep-seated that it takes a physical change of space or a professional advertising campaign to knock biases out of people's thought process, much like getting them to buy generic-brand foods at the supermarket or new-brand cars off the lot.
"The ads with the sad dogs, I guess there was a time and a place for it, but as far as the general public goes, it gets squashed over now," Barrow says. "We need something else to wake us up and pay attention."
More and more shelters around the globe are coming to the same conclusion and partnering their efforts accordingly. Instead of begging people to see the wonderful pooches they know are inside the enclosures, they are looking to leaders in everything from creative design to architecture to retail sales to make new messaging work. It just might be the beginning of an unprecedented rebranding effort, potentially on the scale of what breeders did starting in the mid-1800s when convincing dog lovers that purebreds were the ideal pets in the first place.
The signs of change are worldwide. In Berlin, Germany, the animal-protection society turned to the renowned architect and cat lover Dietrich Bangert to design its multimilliondollar facility, one of Europe's largest at 163,000 square feet (more than 15,000 square meters, about the size of the largest Target retail store on the U.S. East Coast). The Berlin shelter holds about 1,400 animals at a time and cares for about 12,000 animals a year. Bangert has serious drafting chops and is perhaps best known for his work on an art museum in Bonn and the German Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven; the result at the Berlin facility was a far different environment than most people imagine as an animal shelter, a modern study in concrete and water so futuristic that it was used as a set for the 2005 Charlize Theron film Aeon Flux, set in the year 2415.
Creating the architecturally inviting space gave potential dog owners a chance to breathe a bit easier when walking inside, so their brains would take precedence over any bad feelings created by more typical shelter buildings. They looked up instead of feeling down. They intuited that it was okay to relax, because nothing they were about to see would depress them. The professionally designed atmosphere allowed people's minds to focus not on what they thought a shelter might be like, but instead on what was actually before them: friendly, healthy dogs the volunteers had gone so far as to house-train prior to sending them home, in the hopes of making each pairing more likely to stick.
Underlying Dietrich Bangert's futuristic, geometric design for Tierheim Berlin is the architect's commitment to creating maximum physical and emotional comfort for the approximately 1,400 animals it shelters, as well as its workers and visitors. A 163,000- square-foot, glass-andconcrete facility, its circular pavilions, with their cantilevered overhangs and splayed walls, incorporate fresh air and natural light. Each pavilion consists of three spherical structures arranged around an enclosed open space, rather like petals on a daisy.
Yet another example is in Costa Rica, where the Territorio de Zaguates shelter had nearly all mixed-breed dogs while adopters primarily wanted purebreds, so it worked with the San Jose–based creative agency Garnier BBDO to launch a marketing campaign around the idea of "unique breeds." Instead of calling the dogs mutts, they followed the same branding convention long used by breeders, labeling the dogs as things that sounded surprisingly like kennel club– recognized Dandle Dinmont Terriers and Finnish Laphunds: Chubby-Tailed German Dobernauzers, Fire-Tailed Border Cockers, Alaskan Collie Fluffyterriers, White-Chested Dachweilers, and Brown-Eyed Australian Dalmapointers. (Is it really any different from inventing a German Blabrador?)
Watercolor artists painted renderings that mimicked the design of the purebred standard drawings, then added the unique breed names in a highfalutin, royal wedding–worthy typeface. The posters created a visual way for people to process the message that breed names, when it comes to choosing a pet, are often no more than a line of marketing copy.
By the end of the Territorio de Zaguates campaign— "When You Adopt a Mutt, You Adopt a Unique Breed"—the shelter's dogs had received more than $450,000 in news and public-relations coverage. More than a half-million people had discussed and shared the dogs on Facebook. Adoptions went up 1,400 percent, and the shelter got sponsors who now cover the whole of its operating expenses.
All in all, the teams in Costa Rica and Germany experienced the same thing organizers of the Human Walking Program saw in Australia: Working with professional marketers and designers made a huge impact on people's perceptions about the dogs, who were suddenly in demand and welcomed into people's homes en masse—even though the pooches themselves hadn't changed at all.
"We have been inundated with interest from shelters from South Africa to the USA, which leads us to believe that shelters across the world generally share the same priority of changing the public's perception of shelter pets," Coro says from Melbourne, "and now there is a tried and tested plan that can help us all do that."
Mike Arms is a business-minded advocate who saves dogs without making any excuses for raising their value along with the professional value of the people working with them. Since 1999, he has been president of the Helen Woodward Animal Center in California, where he tripled adoption rates while charging some of the highest dog-adoption fees in America and recruiting employees for their business and marketing savvy. (As of 2013, according to an independent auditor's report, the center's management salaries and benefits totaled $373,420. Arms' pay was not itemized.) Nobody can buy a dog from the center for less than $399. A couple of Labrador puppies sold recently for $500 apiece, and a six-month-old Goldendoodle went for $1,000 not long ago. Arms has no problem telling adopters they should pay fair market value because his dogs have just as much intrinsic value, and make just as fabulous pets, as the purebreds going for similar prices from breeders. "Why is it," he asks, "that somebody can go out and spend $2,000 or $3,000 on a pet and after thirty days realize it's not for them, and they take it to their local facility, and the minute it crosses that threshold, the value is gone?"
His approach leaves many shelter operators with mouths agape, especially the ones who can't even give their dogs away for free. Arms believes that their failure has nothing to do with the quality of the dogs, but instead with the quality of the dogs in people's minds, which he sees as the job of shelter directors to manage. The problem isn't the dogs. The problem is the marketing.
"I'm getting more and more frustrated with my peers as I get older," he says. "It just seems like they're going backwards in time now. They think the way to increase adoptions is to lower fees and come up with gimmicks. That doesn't increase adoptions at all. All that does is devalue the pets. How in the world can we change the public's perception of these beautiful pets if we're the one doing this?"
The root of the problem with homeless dogs and pricing, he says, goes back to the way many rescue organizations got started. It's usually a woman who finds a puppy in the street and gets him into a loving home. The woman likes the feeling of having done right by the pup, so she helps more dogs, and then more dogs, until she decides to form an organization along the lines of a humane society. "They weren't getting paid for it," Arms says. "They just liked doing it as a hobby. So they felt, 'If I'm not doing it for pay, nobody else should be doing it for pay.'"
Try telling a breeder he should care for all the dogs for free and give them away out of the goodness of his heart. Rescuers often have a completely different mentality, Arms says, one that devalues their own worth as well as the worth of the dogs.
Arms regularly finds himself standing on stage in front of a room filled with rescuers who fit that mold, most of them women, even today. He tells a particular story again and again, one that seems to make the message clear. It starts when he asks them what they would do if they were invited to a formal dinner banquet at a high-end restaurant. What is the very next thing you'd do, he asks, after you accepted the invitation?
To a person, they answer that they'd go out and buy a new dress. "Now, human nature is that a lot of people will put a budget on what they're going to spend on that outfit," he tells them. "You go out in the department store and start trying on outfits and none of them fit you right. The color's not right. You get depressed and you're going to walk out, and then on your way out you see a dress that's a hundred dollars more. And it fits. And you buy it. You're willing to spend three hundred or four hundred dollars on that dress that you're going to wear three or four times, but you're not willing to spend it on a dog. What are we teaching the public about value?"
Arms loves dogs just as much as the rescuers in the audience do, but he treats the pooches far more like products than most of his colleagues might—because he believes that's what gets them into homes. He's had courtesy shoppers from the department store Macy's come through his shelter to tell him what he can do better in terms of staffing and displays. He brought in BMW salesmen to train his staff. ("Nobody is a better salesman than a car salesman," he says.) As of this writing, Bruce Nordstrom, former chairman of the upscale retailer Nordstrom Inc., was scheduled to do training at the center, all because Arms believes the sales techniques in the dog-rescue business need a swift reboot into the modern era of retail sales. He wants to be the BMW of the used-pooch industry, the place where buyers can go and know they're getting a top-quality product worth every penny of the extra money, not unlike a pre-owned luxury sedan.
"They can call it adoptions or rehoming or whatever they want," Arms says of rescuers, "but they're in the business of selling used dogs. And they'd better be good at it, because those lives are on the line."
Arms has been invited to speak to shelter directors everywhere from British Columbia in Canada to multiple cities in New Zealand, preaching the philosophy that shelters should be run by the savviest marketing and sales people, raising their prices and preaching the overall value of every great pup. Shelter directors should have a heart for dogs, but first and foremost, a mind for business—because that's the only thing that breaks through stereotypes and helps dog lovers understand what they're really getting for their money.
"We have to change the public's perception," he says. "The public believes the pets in pet facilities are there because there's something wrong with the pet. We have to teach them that the pet is there because there's something wrong with the person who had the pet. That's the reality."
News: Editors
Prompting Investigation for Animal Cruelty
Our colleague, Mark Derr's "Dog's Best Friend" blog looks at an alarming program from Cesar 911 (National Geographic Wild). Seems as if the controversy surrounding Cesar Millan lives on, but this time his total disregard of how his misguided and irresponsible "beliefs" about animal behavior and dog training have resulted in other animals being harmed. It is truly unconscionable that National Geographic, that purports to be a family oriented network, would allow this animal abuse to happen and then to actually televise it. Trying to get a dog to be a "friend" to pet pigs by leashing them together and then the dog running amuck injuring the pigs certainly should not be considered to be suitable or entertaining programming. As for Millan, as dog lovers should be aware of by now, just about every animal behaviorist and veterinarians worldwide have denounced his methods and teachings. National Geographic needs to hear from us about this latest abusive behavior. There is a Change petition that is being circulated.
LATEST NEWS: Cesar Millan is now being investigated for possible animal abuse on this matter.
Here is Mark Derr's post:
[Note: The video clip of the Cesar 911 episode to which this posting refers appears to have been removed from public viewing on YouTube. A partial clip and commentary can be found here(link is external).]
On March 7, staff writer Christian Cotroneo reported for The Dodo, the website devoted to "the love of animals" on Cesar Millan's "worst dog-training idea, ever," that is, a particularly demented plan to reform a pig-killing French bulldog by giving him a "positivememory" with pigs upon which he can build a less lethal relationship with all other life forms. Millan, the self-proclaimed dog whisperer who has attained cult status by showing hapless dog owners how to become "pack leaders" by giving their animals "discipline" before "affection," has raised the hackles of serious animal behaviorists and dog trainers even before his program first aired on the National Geographic channel in 2003. Since then he has become a one-man conglomerate, with spin-off television programs, a magazine, best-selling books, and a hugely successful website.
But all along, he has had his critics, including me, as most readers of this blog know. In 2006, I wrote an op-ed for The New York Times criticizing Millan's approach to training and his antiquated view of dominance hierarchies. Other critiques have followed, including a number of essays by my fellow Psychology Today blogger Marc Bekoff and protests from the leading animal behaviorists in the country. Criticism of Millan routinely draws vitriolic, sometimes threatening, responses from his followers.
The current controversy surrounding Milllan focuses on an episode from his new program Cesar 911, in which he addresses problem cases. The clip was posted on You Tube on February 25 and has raised a ruckus in social media said Cotroneo in his response to the show. (A noted above, the clips have largely been removed from public view.) In the episode, Millan puts a pig-killing French bulldog into a fenced training area stocked with pigs with the intent that he will learn not to attack but to love pigs. While on a long line—an extended lead—held by Millan, the dog seems fine, but when his human companion unlooses him on Millan's order, Simon turns demonic. He rips one pig's ear. He escapes Millan's desperate lunges—"I've got it," the dog whisperer says at one point. At another, as Millan tumbles to the ground gasping for air, he mutters, "This is teaching."
But what is taught and what is learned? Certainly the best learning outcome would be for National Geographic to take a stand for dogs, pigs, and other animals and remove Cesar Millan from the air until he reforms his act.
Used with permission of Mark Derr.
Good Dog: Behavior & Training
How much do pets matter to voters?
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt famously said, "You can criticize, me, my wife and my family, but you can't criticize my little dog." His little dog was a Scottish Terrier named Fala, and what came to be known as the "Fala Speech" is thought to have helped him secure re-election for a fourth term. His defense of the dog did wonders for FDR's image.
Lyndon B. Johnson's image was also affected by his dogs. Pictures of him holding his Beagles, Him and Her, up by their ears upset many citizens. Though the resulting scandal may not have had major effects on his presidency, many people forever thought his treatment of his pets showed his true character, and not in a good way.
Warren Harding certainly treated his Airedale, Laddie Boy, with high esteem. Harding gave his dog a hand-carved chair to sit on during high-level meetings, like a true member of his cabinet. He also celebrated Laddie Boy's birthday with a party at the White House that included the neighborhood dogs and a birthday cake made from dog biscuits.
Harry S Truman made a major PR mistake when he regifted a Cocker Spaniel he received for Christmas. He gave the dog, Feller, to the White House physician, though the dog became more popularly known as the Unwanted Dog. It's ironic that Truman did not accept this gift, as he is considered the source of the quote, "You want a friend in Washington? Get a dog."
Early on in our history, presidents may not have been concerned about how their dogs influenced people's view of them. That could explain how President Washington was able to name his dogs Tipsy and Drunkard, for example. That surely would not fly in today's political climate.
Today, we scrutinize everything about our politicians, including their dogs, and that extends to candidates as well. It's important to know not just who will replace Obama, but who will follow in the footsteps of Bo and Sunny.
Culture: DogPatch
Laurie Anderson is a visionary artist and a pioneer in electronic music as well as a marvelous storyteller. She employs her voice, with its songlike phrasing (as in her 1981 hit single "O Superman"), along with instruments—some of which she invented—video and other acoustic props to weave her tales.
In her new film, Heart of a Dog, her beloved Rat Terrier, Lolabelle, takes center stage in an imaginative, lyrical, confessional narrative. As Anderson describes it, "It's a series of short stories about telling stories." Quoting David Foster Wallace, she adds, "Every love story is a ghost story."
Over the course of this absorbing 75-minute film, she considers the deaths of her mother; her dear Lolabelle, whom she "co-parented" with husband Lou Reed; her friend Gordon Matta-Clark; and finally, Reed himself in 2013. Times critic A.O. Scott praised it as a "philosophically astute, emotionally charged meditation on death, love, art and dogs." It's also about learning to "how to feel sad without actually being sad," as her Buddhist teacher instructed.
While the film offers a visual representation, it's really Anderson's Zen-calm narrative that conveys its message. Both film and score open with her recounting a dream in which she gives birth to Lolabelle. She then uses the dog as a springboard, digressing to a variety of other topics but always circling back to the dog. One of our favorite segments, "Piano Lessons," is about how Anderson and Reed set up keyboards on the floor for their old dog (who was going blind), and used a clicker to train her to make music. As Anderson wryly observes, the dog's playing "was … pretty good."
The movie, which has a limited run, will be aired on HBO in 2016. Luckily for dog lovers and Anderson fans, Nonesuch just released its critically acclaimed soundtrack.
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By Donna Freydkin, USA TODAY
LOS ANGELES She's dainty and delicate, with seemingly endless legs and cheeks that can cut glass.
But Diane Kruger has more to offer than an impeccable sense of style.
Quentin Tarantino found that out when he cast the former model and ballet dancer as cunning German screen siren Bridget von Hammersmark.
"I knew that this was the part I'd been waiting for in America, for sure. It took a lot to get this part. No one here had seen me quite yet in being this forceful, powerful female," says Kruger, 33. "I knew that obviously, being German, I could bring a lot to the table. But it took a lot of convincing."
For starters, Tarantino wanted only authentic actors in Inglourious Basterds and didn't believe Kruger was German.
"He saw everyone in Germany and finally agreed he would see me — but only in Germany. I had to fly myself from New York to Germany. I knew I had one shot at this," Kruger says. "I met Quentin and was so stressed out. I walked in, it was just him and me. I had learned the script to perfection."
Kruger wanted to work with Tarantino, a director known for drawing surprising and career-making performances out of his actors, as Pulp Fiction star John Travolta can attest. And Tarantino's offbeat take on World War II appealed to the actress.
"I get offered World War II movies once a week. I've never wanted to do it. I don't want to associate myself with that really dark time in my country," she says. "What I liked about this was the take on it. And I love that we assassinate Hitler. I mean, trust me — it's about time! I love the idea that I, through my character, help bring down the Third Reich."
On set, she proved her mettle, especially in one throttle of a scene with the enraged Nazi colonel played by Christoph Waltz.
"Diane looks frail and petite. She's a toughie," Waltz says with a chuckle. "I had to stop working for a day because she can defend herself and there were traces on my face. She's down-to-earth, straightforward, hardworking."
Already, she has felt the Tarantino effect: more choices and better offers.
"Oh yeah," says Kruger, who until recently was best known for 2004's Troy and the two National Treasure capers (2004 and 2007). "People took time to notice me for the first time and see me as something different. I've turned down a lot of girlfriend-of-the-superhero parts."
She's now in Berlin, shooting the drama Unknown White Male, opposite Liam Neeson and Frank Langella. "I play a Serbian immigrant to Germany. It's another accent. She's very different, quite tough and a little punky."
Kruger is both bookish and stylish, enthusiastic about Jon Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven and about Mormon fundamentalism, and smitten with her glittery Jimmy Choo stilettos. She shuttles between Vancouver, where her boyfriend, Joshua Jackson, shoots his sci-fi Fox series Fringe, and Los Angeles, where they just moved together from New York. And she tends to more mundane domestic issues, such as Jackson's propensity for absent-mindedness.
"He of course forgot his shirt on the plane, so he had to go back to the airport," she says with a giggle.
Kruger, who is divorced from French actor Guillaume Canet, has no plans to marry Jackson. "Been there, done that," she says.
But she does have future plans that circle back to her turn in Basterds.
"I know that one day I'll have kids and I'll show them the movie and they'll say, 'Mom was pretty cool. She didn't suck,'" she says with a grin.
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Adobe Digital School Collection - Integrate technology across curriculum
Show: Adobe at ISTE 2010
Inspire students to create dynamic content, communicate their understanding of subject matter, and collaborate on multimedia projects with the Adobe Digital School Collection, which includes state-of-the-art Adobe software as well as curriculum and training materials to bring the learning experience to life. Take your budget further with the Adobe Digital School Collection. Add sound editing, web publishing, and ePortfolio capabilities.


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With the May half term fast approaching and the weather beginning to brighten up, Squire's Garden Centre will be on hand to help youngster enjoy the great outdoors.
A range of create and grow activities will be offered daily at the Cobham, Hersham and Long Ditton centres, with fun for children, and parents, of all ages.
Green-fingered families or those who wish to turn their hand to something new are invited to visit the garden centres in the borough and plant up a vegetable box, before taking it home to nurture it as the vegetables begin to grow.
Sarah Squire, deputy chairman of Squire's garden centres, said: "Our half term events are extremely popular with the children and their parents.
"The youngsters always enjoy engaging in a whole range of different activities which keep idle hands busy, and they're sure to be a hit with parents looking for inexpensive ways to entertain their children over the holidays."
A number of free activities including treasure hunts and colouring competitions will also take place, with prizes on offer for winners and stickers for all participants.
Create and Grow at Squire's Garden Centres; Stoke Road, Cobham, Burwood Road, Hersham and Woodstock Lane North, Long Ditton; May 27 to May 30, activities run each day from 9am to 12pm; £5 per create and grow box; for more information visit squiresgardencentres.co.uk.


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UDP Ping (-PU [portlist])A UDP ping is a departure from the other ping types because it uses UDP frames to communicate between devices. Since most of the other ping types focus on TCP frames, the UDP ping can assist in locating active devices through firewalls that the other ping types might not discover.
UDP Ping Operation
The UDP ping attempts to locate a remote device by sending a single UDP frame to the remote device. If an ICMP port unreachable message is returned, a system is alive on the other end:
Source Destination Summary -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [192.168.0.5] [192.168.0.3] UDP: D=31338 S=42560 LEN=8 [192.168.0.3] [192.168.0.5] ICMP: Destination unreachable (Port unreachable)If no response is received, it's assumed that the remote system is unavailable. This could be an incorrect assumption if an open UDP port is probed, because many UDP applications don't send a response to any random incoming frame. If possible, the UDP ping should be sent to a port number that is presumed to be closed.
This ping will only run as a privileged user. If this ping is run as a non-privileged user, this amusing message is displayed:
Sorry, UDP Ping (-PU) only works if you are root (because we need to read raw responses off the wire) and only for IPv4 (cause fyodor is too lazy right now to add IPv6 support and nobody has sent a patch)
The UDP ping can specify individual port numbers delimited with commas. If a port is not specified, UDP port 31338 is used by default.
The UDP ping is simple and innocuous. The single UDP ping frame blends well with other network traffic, and the UDP ping process requires very little network interaction.
Disadvantages of the UDP Ping
The UDP ping relies heavily on ICMP. If ICMP is filtered, there will be no response to the UDP ping.
Not all applications will reply to a random UDP frame that appears on its open port. It's recommended that the UDP ping intentionally use an unavailable port as a destination to ensure a response from the remote station.
The UDP ping only runs as a privileged user, and there are no UDP-based ping alternatives for non-privileged nmap users.
When to use the UDP Ping
The UDP ping is useful when the link between the nmap station and the remote device is not filtered, since packet filters will often drop the ICMP replies. If ICMP can't traverse the network link, this ping type will have limited effectiveness.
It's also important to use UDP ports that are not in use, which can be a challenge when traversing firewalls. If UDP is going to be open through a firewall, it will be to an open service port. However, we don't usually want this ping to use an open UDP port. This limits the effectiveness of this ping through a packet filter or firewall.


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CALGARY, Alberta, Nov 24 (Reuters) - The world has become a more difficult place for the small, intrepid Canadian oil explorers that roam the globe hunting for the next big petroleum discovery.
Like the big-game hunters that once ranged Africa, these small-cap explorers and producers (E&Ps) call their quest for billion barrel-plus oil deposits "elephant-hunting", and for many the thrill of the chase is a big part of why they are in business.
"A guy can invest in the Alberta oil sands or a Bakken shale-type company and they are going to make a little bit of money, but they are not going to hit that grand-slam home run we are looking for in elephant country," said Mark Sommer, spokesman at Simba Energy.
But Ebola, Islamic State and the Ukraine conflict have made an already tough market tougher for these companies, while potential investors are finding the North American shale boom a more comfortable place for their money.
Some of the E&Ps are trying to diversify and bring production back home to Canada's more stable environment. For most, however, that is not an option. Their expertise lies in finding and proving oil deposits, not asset development.
At Simba Energy, the bulk of its operations are in Kenya but it also has assets in Ebola-stricken Liberia and in Mali, where Tuareg rebels are demanding greater autonomy.
The company is trying to exit Mali and will re-evaluate its Liberian operations if the Ebola outbreak lasts more than another six months, Sommer said.
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