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Discussion: the state of the game
This guy here has quite a lot to say on the state of the game:
Do you agree?
(I'd like for this not to devolve into a whinefest, because there are enough of those on the public PS2 forums anyway, but some nuanced discussion and constructive critique would be fun.)
Yeah, I pretty much totally agree on all points.. Read the whole thing. I still think PS2 is an excellent game, but he pinpoints everything that will make or break PS2 in the long term - ghostcapping and cert/KDR-stuff especially.
Just his proposed ghostcapping solution would probably fix the current biggest problem with the game.
I like the KDR point, because it indeed reinforces playing behaviours that are dissonant with what this game aims to become.
As for the rest, I don't know. I feel really fortunate playing with you, guys, because I haven't experienced or at least had my game ruined by what that very vocal group of whiners keep whining about. The "Giraffe of Awesome" thread lists many of the reasons why I enjoy playing this game.
On a side note, I've never played an MMO before, and this is the first FPS I've played in over a decade, besides Borderlands 1/2 (which are a lot more forgiving). I tried to dabble in BF3 (only because it came with my graphics card), but it just didn't make sense to me. And I couldn't stand the militaristic jingoism.
So, with those credentials (or lack thereof), I think that PS2 is all about emergent gameplay. And, something that a lot of those threads miss, because most are started by lone wolfs (without even the accompanying cub), is that half the gameplay lies in the coms. Either the urgent cry "Sundy to the left" or "Inf coming over the ridge to the NW of the point", or Oak for example just taking the piss (fully certed at that) , it is a core element that is often overlooked.
tl;dr: Oak is OP!
Last edited by MrEclectic; 03-01-2013 at 12:07 PM.
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There are threads like this on official forums daily. Why did you pick this one in particular?
Anyway, I am not going to write an essay here, so I'll just address the KDR argument.
Removing KDR achieves nothing. I know this because I am a KDR whore and I play(ed?) Tribes: Ascend where it has been removed as a statistic. I simply Tab at the end of the match and compare my kills and deaths. And even if that was removed too, I would still know how "well" I did just by playing the game. I wouldn't know my exact stats, but I would still know if I died a lot or not.
That said, KDR whoring isn't a problem in Planetside 2 for two reasons.
One, death is meaningful. The respawn timer is sufficiently long(what is it, 15 seconds total to Sunderer? 20 to any other facility?) and the logistics of getting back to the battle are realistic enough(read: it takes time, even if your spawn point is near the battle itself) that killing an enemy puts him out of combat for long enough to make a difference to your team. Compare that with Tribes: Ascend where death timer is five seconds, and the ease to get to high speeds combined with mostly small map sizes usually means you can be back at your corpse in ten seconds flat. This problem simply doesn't exist in Planetside 2, and players with high KDR are actively helping their team by giving it numerical advantage.
Two, because KDR whoring is extremely rare. Significant majority of players just don't care about their KDR ratio, as evidenced by them walking into the same corridor spammed with rockets again and again and again. Or hiding behind the same rock, despite the location being spammed with rockets, again and again and again. Do not mistake people who farm - which is a way to get XP - with KDR whores; they might seem similar, but they're not(Basically, people who just want to farm XP don't care when they die, and people who want to get high KDR do).
- I dislike KDR, as I never use it at all.
- I dont mind ghostcapping, but I do agree that it should scale with more people there defending.
- Influence should be important. I like the way influence works now, that even if you cut someone off thats defending, they can still successfull hold a point till their connection reestablishes.
- I dont think vehicles are overpowered, but I think the resource system is largely underused.
- I like being infantry.
- I agree that all certs should be spent on all classes, but I assume they want to promote class specialisation, but instead, it breeds mmo grindyness. could be, I dont play enough for this to be an issue, apparently.- Tom De Roeck.
verse publications & The Shopkeeper, an interactive short.
"Quantacat's name is still recognised even if he watches on with detached eyes like Peter Molyneux over a cube in 3D space, staring at it with tears in his eyes, softly whispering... Someday they'll get it." - The Conclave
Last edited by MrEclectic; 03-01-2013 at 12:52 PM.
On a side note, here is Malorn's Manifesto:
He is apparently a PS1 veteran, and an influential one at that. It is a long read (I just skimmed through it), but it does raise a lot of interesting points about gameplay balance and design philosophy.
I think the main point missed out on that first post (didn't read down the thread, I suffer from allergies to official forums) is fun.
What I see there is "the most efficient way to play the game", "the best way to play the game", the only way to play the game" and not "I have the most fun playing when...". It seems the point of the game is to earn certs. I'm sorry, but I play the game to fill time and have a bit of fun riding about in vehicles and shooting people on foot with like-minded people, oh, and die a lot.
I don't care about grinding, once I find myself doing that I get bored fast. KDR? I do look at it to laugh at how badly I'm doing.
As for base defenses, yes, I'm sure there's some balancing that could be done there, but with care, slowing down base assaults and defenses also could slow down the fun, basing the amount of XP giving on how hard the base was fought over might actually be a good idea.
I'm certain there a lot of people who take the game far more seriously than me, I'm a patient person who can wait until he unlocks the new toys and probably won't specialise heavily in anything.
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BuzzCuts post was probably posted since he is the leader of the arguably biggest and also most disciplined outfit in PS2, as well as his entire post was well written and very rage-free (also 90% of the official forums is OMG PAY2WIN!1111!!).
One thing I noticed now that I don't agree with is the infantry part - I don't think vehicles are that OP. Infantry is effective, fun and racks in kills as well. Regarding the KDR I think many people don't mind it, but it's pretty obvious FPS skills matter way more then tactics regarding cert gain. I think that's a problem that he addresses nicely, even though he might focus on the KDR a bit much.
Regarding fun, I think PS2 is the most fun I've had in a game in a very long time. That being said, if you are as BuzzCut, and to a lesser extent like me, fun is winning and being effective. I don't really enjoy games if I lose or if I'm bad at them for playing a specific way. If there's then a specific way to maximize effectivness and personally "winning" that actively encourages people not to fight tactically (like camping a sundy instead of destroying it), there's a problem.
XP should be made much more dynamic. If there's a sundy that's spawning tons of infantry constantly, make it so that you get more XP for destroying it then farming it for a minute or so. Every sundy should not be 5000 xp, but the one's that are extremely crucial and valuable should be. Dynamic XP and the mission system in that way would help so goddamn much to encourage people to fight and not farm.
I agree with a surprisingly (for me) large part of this.
I wouldn't say vehicles are necessarily overpowered but there are specialisation problems between various different sources. Anti air in general is largely only effective against air (it can get kills on others and I have numerous infantry kills with my burster max but it's far far less effective than an anti-infantry weapon) compared to something like rocket-pods which are hugely effective against all targets and HE rounds which obliterate infantry and aren't that noticeably worse against armour than more specialised sources.
Sorting out some of that along with the dynamic xp ideas are a good way of keeping me interested :3
I haven't read the two linked posts yet (I will this evening because they possibly make valid points). But those threads always make me feel like I'm doing something wrong when I'm simply enjoying the game.
The state of the game for me personally is that it's awesome and I'm enjoying it greatly. I recognize there are two things missing in the game (Tutorial and Metagame - which basically is the ghost capping issue) and I don't like that shop purchases are restricted to one character. And that's it. I'm really looking forward to seeing how they'll further develop the game.
Oh... and regarding balance issues. It's quite funny, because I thought air was overpowered but after the triple station cash friday there are A LOT more Skyguards and double burster Maxes on the field and at the moment I can't see anything to be really overpowered.
Last edited by TehK; 03-01-2013 at 04:37 PM.
I agree with He for tanks being overpowered. There's little to no reason to run AP or even HEAT when you have a gun that dominates the most numerous threat to tanks, but can also nuke any tank and destroy it.
Hopefully SOE fix this stuff next patch, I think the community as a wholes making a helluva a lot of noise over these things.
Planetside 2 has potential, and I've had some fun with it, but it's become very disappointing. I like the action, the vehicles, and the fights, but there's no real GAME there. You can't win! It's just a big team-deathmatch sandbox with a ridiculous xp/level/unlock treadmill.
Strategy, pressure, and teamplay keep me coming back in games like BF2142, ETQW, and NS2. Planetside 2 basically doesn't have this at all. The meta/strategy layer is a "maybe this will matter someday" feature, and that sucks. The persistent character/server/unlock stuff is worse than pointless. The continent-map switching actively undermines large scale strategic play.
It also has lots of minor issues: balance, interface annoyances, map population stacking, crashes, a jetpack breaking bug, lame sprint-toggle, bad night visibility, etc.
Planetside 2 is sadly underdeveloped, and without some serious structure in the strategic play I'm quickly losing interest.
Oh, Esoteric, what can of worms have you opened!
as someone who plays almost 100% of the time as infantry, i don't find the vehicles to be that overpowered. i would like capping/defending to matter more, though (a whole lot more); taking a base should reward you with 10-15x the amount of xp it currently does (and defending a base should give the same).
capping a facility gives 1k xp max. i can get 1k xp by killing ~7 people (with the headshot + killstreak bonuses). that's silly.
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I'd like my C4 to be cheaper. I'm stuck without any at this point, and I'm always using it to blow up tanks.
Also, deconstructing a vehicle should not deny the kill XP. Or you shouldn't be able to deconstruct it unless it hasn't taken damage in the past twenty or so seconds.
And everything in the game is an upgrade- everything should start with a base ability for each slot, even if not upgraded.
And there's no reason to use anything other than the nanoweave unless you have a specific need for it. I use the bonus sprint on my LA, but that's because I'm a horrible gremlin that shows up to remove someone from existence with my shotgun, then I vanish around a corner.
While I might like capping points to matter more, I do believe that increasing reward will only break the game even more, due to zergy nature of capping. We would employ zerg to zerg fights more, what isn't fun at all.Hear from the spirit-world this mystery:
Creation is summed up, O man, in thee;
Angel and demon, man and beast art thou,
Yea, thou art all thou dost appear to be!
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Also, the Adrenaline thing for LA is horrible. It's 10% speed boost... on sprint only. If you want to be a shotgun gremlin don't sprint, fly and rain shotgun on your enemies.
Mohorovicic; I chose the post I linked for two reasons; firstly I'd just read it, and secondly, I found it to be well-written and thought through, making several points that I agreed with, and some that I didn't.
I am in love with this game at the moment. There are a few things that chafe, but overall this is the game of the year of 2012 for me.
I, for one, believe that facilities should be a bit more defensible; removing the spawn teleporter from tech plants seems like a bad move, for instance. Also, having a few less windows, and more protected entrances to buildings would make vehicles a bit less effective at base camping, and perhaps switch the vehicle combat more into the field, where I believe it makes for the most fun play. The same goes for aircraft. Good pilots should be rewarded for their skills, if it makes them able to get below covered walkways etc, but flying a liberator to the flight ceiling and carpet bombing a base should not be quite as effective as it is, I think, however much fun it may be for those in it.
Finally, drastically diminishing the amount of XP for killing a newly spawned enemy would probably make spawn farming less interesting, which is a good thing, because spawn farming might be the worst kind of asshattery out there. Don't get me wrong here, I have nothing against spawn camping, that's a valid method of denying the enemy access to a facility and to keep it locked down, but spawn farming, i.e. killing the guys spawning from the sunderer rather than taking the sunderer itself out, is just bad style and should be discouraged.


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Science and Technology Centers: Integrative Partnerships (Archived)
Document Type: Program Announcements & Information View Program Page
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Document History: Posted: January 18, 2011. Replaces: nsf08580. Replaced By: nsf14600.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Like its prickly name suggests, the Cactus Centro "Commercial Business Center" (2864 Cerrillos Road) isn't necessarily what you'd call "inviting."
Signs posted against its metal fencing are enough to make the Five Man Electrical Band write a follow-up to their 1970 classic. One of them "Absolutely!" warns against any type of car repair; while another states that 9 pm to 6 am is officially "quiet time" and all radios must be turned off. A third one makes it clear that on-premise alcohol and drug consumption, along with "congregating" of any kind, are strictly prohibited. Junkie church leaders, take note.
Bleak as this might seem, the succulent strip mall is host to Santa Fe's best-kept secret, Pollo Asado (Roasted Chicken).
"Stick to what you know" the old adage goes, and for owner Ludovico Arizmendi, it rings true. Located inside a trailer, Arizmendi's locale has perfected the art of roasting and char-grilling chicken and offers it in every imaginable variety—be it in fajita ($8), rolled taquito ($6 for an order of six), torta ($6) or sincronizada ($8) form.
Those in the know, however, go whole hog (or in this case hen) and order the "whole chicken dinner" ($18).
"El pollo asado es el más chingón," Arizmendi says of his signature dish. With an audible rumble coming from my stomach, I take his word for it and order the sensible half-chicken meal ($9.50).
The sound of grilling commingles with a buzz from a neighboring tattoo shop and the roar of an engine coming from a muscle car whose owner decided to ignore the signs and work on it anyway.
The hearty half chick arrives, hulking over a Styrofoam container, accompanied by rice, beans and a half-dozen corn tortillas. I tell Arizmendi it looks damn good, to which, without missing a beat, he replies, "It doesn't look good, it is good."
Topping it off is a welcome surprise, a half-mozzarella/half-asadero quesadilla.
"All grilled meals should be topped by a quesadilla," Arizmendi shares. "Be it beef, shrimp or chicken—it just makes everything taste better."
No shit. I devour it with gusto, in expectation of the main course.
"Nowhere in Santa Fe will you find chicken like this," Arizmendi boasts. "Just wait, it's the perfect lunch," the hype man continues.
In an almost hypnotic state of frenzy due to the combination of grill smoke, engine fumes and promises, I take my first bite of the entrée. The result is a combination of fireworks, Baby Jessica coming out of the well and Barack and Michelle Obama dancing to "At Last" during the prez' first inauguration. In my mouth.
I toss my fork to the side and dig in using nothing but my hands. The meat is juicy, deeply flavorful and falls right off the bone like marshmallows thrown from heaven by the Baby Jesus himself. It's a result, Arizmendi says, of his special combination of herbs and spices that way exceed KFC's 11.
For a second, I come up for air and consider jaunting to Hobby Lobby to buy some gold-toned craft paper, cutting some stars out and dubbing him General.
Without over-sharing, Arizmendi cites garlic, oregano and achiote as some of the dish's main seasonings.
Another secret is using exclusively Mexican briquettes to release his chicken's distinct flavor. "The American ones just don't work," he says, propping a bag of El Diablo mesquite charcoal atop the trailer's narrow eating counter.
I nod, buoyantly, a combination of homemade chile de árbol salsa and chicken juice flowing down my beard like the aftermath of some perverted poultry bukkake scene starring Foghorn Leghorn and the San Diego Chicken.
The Olive Garden might have branded the "When you're here, you're family" slogan, but just a few minutes into my meal, it's evident that's the case at Pollo Asado in spades, as Arizmendi greets his regulars by calling them paisano (compatriot), primo (cousin)—or, if they're top-notch, pariente (relative).
Impressed by my Kobayashi-like behavior, Arizmendi offers me some complimentary pickled red onions. "They're usually reserved for the whole orders," he says, as I almost bite his fingers off.
The resulting symphony of flavors is moan-inducing. Literally. Like that When Harry Met Sally scene, except with less poofy hair.
"Come back soon, pariente," Arizmendi hollers as I'm leaving, letting me know I'm now part of the family.
Pretty chingón.
Pollo Asado
Location: corner of Cerrillos and Siler Road, 316-4085
Open: Tuesday-Sunday, 10 am-6 pm
Serving: all chicken, all the tiempo
Recommendation: the downright heavenly half-chicken meal


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OK im going to list all the keys I have for sale on freerealms. Each key is 2,000 and prices will never change. No I do not have The Key to the City because you cannot trade that key, it is a quest that is placed in snowhill and once you do that quest you can not a: do the quest again for another key or b: trade the key after doing the quest because it the moment you get the key, it is placed in your collection and you can't sell or trade it. I will update this list once i sell a few and get new keys. The number of how many of one kind of key will be listed in paranthesis beside the name. I wil be happy to show you the quest on free realms to get key to the city, (it is a quest line meaning many quests and you MUST be a member after a few quests in the line)
Bixie key (1) Sacred Keys Collection
Cabinet Key (1) Useful Keys Collection
Car Key (2) Keys Collection
Do Not Duplicate Key (2) Keys Collection
Heartstone Key (1) Fancy Keys Collection
Make-Up Box Key (1) Useful Keys Collection
Master key (1) Keys Collection
Ruby Gemmed Key (2) Special Keys Collection
Safe Key (1) Keys Collection
Saint's Key (3) Fancy Keys Collection
School Locker Key (1) Useful Keys Collection
Shackles Key (1) Keys Collection
My name on FreeRealms is Zoey Flamelight101 So Friend me, I move servers a lot but you will most likely find me at the Briarwood party spot.


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NutsOnline: Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
An unwritten rule seems to exist that pitchers must have something to chew and spit while working the mound, contemplating their next twist of the wrist. Whether or not that is true for rookie pitcher Jaime Garcia remains to be seen. But hopefully he will be able to afford an ample supply of his favorite nut, candy and/or gum once he makes his debut with the Saint Louis Cardinals.


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Get Fit For Lydia Boot Camp Going On Now
In October of last year, six-year-old Lydia Haycraft was diagnosed with Ewings Sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer. Since her diagnosis, Lydia's family, friends, and community have rallied around her as she faces some tough months ahead of chemotherapy.
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Having signed to portray Gotti deputy Angelo Ruggiero, the 'My Cousin Vinny' star says, 'It's going to be a great experience and a rare opportunity to look inside the life of Gotti.'
Joe Pesci has joined John Travolta in the much-anticipated John Gotti biopic. The "My Cousin Vinny" star has signed on to co-star in "Gotti: Three Generations", which will be directed by Nick Cassavetes.
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Macaroons for Passover, or Anytimeby Sara Levine in Holidays, Recipes, April 5th, 2012
Like most of our family gatherings, Passover in my house is all about the food. No one misses bread when you've got steaming bowls of matzo ball soup, homemade gefilte fish (never the slimy kind from a jar), fork-tender brisket and half a dozen sides. But come dessert time, I used to wish for the flour and leavening agents that are forbidden on Passover.
My grandmother was an excellent baker throughout the rest of the year, but her annual spread of kosher-for-Passover cakes and cookies left something (okay, a lot) to be desired. And for some reason, back when she and my grandfather hosted the Seder, the macaroons always came from a can.
This was a travesty. The flourless coconut macaroon is a staple of Passover — it might as well be on the Seder plate next to the horseradish and shank bone. But those canned cookies always smelled weird and had an odd, waxy texture.
Now my sister and I help with the desserts. Instead of omitting flour and baking powder to create leaden versions of favorite pastries, we go with sweets that are naturally K-for-P like flourless chocolate cake, meringues, my famous "matzo crack" and these macaroons. If you're used to the ones from a Manischewitz can, these super-easy, five-ingredient cookies are a revelation. Adapted years ago by my sister from a Weight Watchers recipe, they're even relatively healthy (two points each, I believe).
In our family, these have transcended the Passover Seder to become a year-round treat.
Chocolate-Dipped Passover Macaroons
Makes two dozen
6 egg whites
1 cup sugar
3 cups shredded coconut
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
With an electric mixer, beat together egg whites and sugar to form meringue (soft peaks).
Add vanilla and coconut and stir together with a spatula.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Form tablespoon-sized balls of the coconut mixture with your hands. Space them about an inch apart on the baking sheet. Bake in preheated oven for 18-20 minutes, until tops are golden brown.
Let macaroons cool for 30 minutes before dipping.
Melt the chocolate chips over a double boiler. Dip tops of cooled macaroons into the chocolate.
Place the macaroons in the refrigerator for an hour until chocolate hardens.
Need more last-minute Passover inspiration? We've got dozens of recipe ideas for your Seder feast.


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The family life cycle is the emotional and intellectual stages a
person passes through from childhood to the retirement years as a member of a
The family life cycle consists of several developmental
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About the Book
This notebook combines 17 paintings and sketches of beautiful Bengal cats with plenty of space for notes and drawings on both ruled and plain pages.
These energetic, feline tyrants are fun to live with, as long as you don't mind your newspapers or cardboard boxes being shredded to bits, or constantly taking the cat out of the sink! They're a treat to paint too. I love painting them and I wanted to make a notebook with some of my paintings and sketches of Bengal cats doing what comes naturally, like curling up in the sink!
I hope you enjoy the notebook as much as I enjoy painting and sketching the cats.
The book is 13x20 cm or 5x8 inches
Has 80 pages
On 90 GSM paper
Features 17 paintings of Bengal cats
You can find more of my paintings and prints on my web sites www.thepaintedcat.co.uk or www.deniselaurent.co.uk.
About the Creator
I am a fine artist based in London in the UK and I paint animals and landscapes. My main web site www.deniselaurent.co.uk has a range of my work, cats, dogs, wildlife, farm animals and landscapes, but I also have two other web sites, one for cat art and one for dog art. The Painted Cat is devoted to cat painting and prints, www.thepaintedcat.co.uk The Painted Dog is devoted to dog paintings and prints, www.thepainteddog.co.uk
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NEW YORK (AP) – R.A. Dickey flustered the Houston Astros with knuckleballs and foiled them with his bat, leading the New York Mets to a 5-1 victory Sunday.
Josh Thole homered and Dickey keyed a second-inning rally with a two-run single that helped the Mets end Bud Norris' four-game winning streak. New York took two of three from the Astros and hasn't lost a series at home to Houston since 2002.
Luis Castillo added an RBI single and the Mets went 4-3 against the Astros the past two weeks in a season series marked by some strikingly inept offense on both sides.
Dickey (9-5) yielded six hits in seven-plus innings and had a pair of singles at the plate to aid his own cause.


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Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth and creamy. Serve.
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LEAGUE CITY, Texas - A fire cadet collapsed and died during training, officials said.
League City officials said Donald Mize, 62, had participated in a training exercise at the city's training facility in the 700 block of North Kansas Avenue shortly before he collapsed on Wednesday evening.
"They said he wasn't complaining of any problems, that they had been working and he sat down to rest a minute and his heart just stopped," Mize's wife, Theresa, said.
Mize was taken to Clear Lake Regional Medical Center, where he died.
"This is a very tragic loss for the family, the city and the entire community. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Mize family and the League City Volunteer Fire Department," Mayor Tim Paulissen said.
Mize did everything that a firefighter would be expected to do on the job.
"Dragging hoses, dragging dummies, crawling in and over objects, swinging axes, lifting hoses," League City Fire Department Chief Brad Goudie said.
Mize was a graduate of the Citizen's Police Academy and a member of the Texas State Guard.
Mize passed a full physical and showed no problems before he was accepted into the fire academy, officials said.
"That's why this whole thing was such a shock for us -- he is the most healthy person that we know," said Theresa Mize.
Donald Mize met his wife while teaching in the Clear Creek ISD. After his retirement in May, he served as a substitute teacher, shuttled students on field trips and wrote grants. He wrote a grant that got his school the Channel 2 weather bug.
Donald Mize's love of Galveston history earned him the honor of naming several streets on the island.
The city of League City staff and elected officials will wear red and black ribbons in honor of Donald Mize. City flags have been lowered to half-staff.
"I wanted him to do what was going to make him happy," Theresa Mize said.
The cause of Donald Mize's death is under investigation.
Funeral arrangements have not been finalized.
Copyright 2013 by Click2Houston.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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HOUSTON - A man in the Heights area said an intruder tried to rob him in his own garage.
A warning circulating the Heights said the struggle happened in the man's garage on White Oak between Norhill and Michaux at about 12:45 a.m. Friday.
"I heard my neighbor screaming expletives in the driveway which is right off of my bedroom," said Jennifer Nunnally. "I could hear that something was wrong."
Nunnally's neighbor posted a warning for his neighbors. It said he was attacked right after he got out of his car.
"I was like in a dream state. I wasn't really sure what was happening," said Nunnally. "If that was going on or if I was dreaming it. I could tell by his voice that something was not quite right and when I turned on some lights, I think that's when the guy ran off."
The man's warning said the intruder had a gun and tried to rob him.
The warning also suggested that his neighbors have a plan in case they get into trouble.
Copyright 2013 by Click2Houston.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Pryor could miss several months of 2014 season
Progress slow for Seattle reliever, who's coming off rare surgery on lat muscle
SEATTLE -- Mariners reliever Stephen Pryor, who missed almost all of the 2013 season with shoulder problems, is just beginning a throwing program at his offseason home in Tennessee, and he doesn't figure to be game ready until several months into the season, trainer Rob Nodine said on Thursday.
Pryor had surgery to repair a torn latissimus dorsi muscle on Aug. 9 after attempting to return much of last year following an early-season injury. The hard-throwing right-hander threw 7 1/3 scoreless innings in seven appearances in the first two weeks of the season, then went on the disabled list.
He made five Minor League rehab appearances in July, but eventually underwent season-ending surgery and is just now starting to throw again.
"There's been very few of these injuries that have been surgically repaired," Nodine said when asked to estimate how soon Pryor might be available to pitch. "A lot will depend on when he ramps up his throwing program and gets off the mound. Hopefully it will be somewhere around the end of May, we're guessing, but we'll see how that goes. We're not going to hold him to a timetable, just because we want to see how this progresses."
Nodine said Jake Peavy had a similar injury, but said there have only been three similar surgeries on a torn lat muscle with baseball players.
"It's a long rehab progress, so that's why we're going slow with it and speaking with his doctor," Nodine said. "He's been doing great so far and is very excited. When he gets to Spring Training, he'll continue to progress, as his doctor permits."
The Mariners' other serious injury rehab involves left-handed starter Danny Hultzen, who has already been ruled out for 2014 after having rotator cuff surgery. Nodine said Hultzen is on the verge of beginning a throwing program that the club will oversee in Arizona as he begins his return.
On other health fronts, Nodine said outfielder/first basemen Corey Hart and Logan Morrison are both working out at full speed and having no issues as they return from knee injuries. Hart missed all of 2013 for the Brewers after having microfracture surgery on both knees, while Morrison has missed the past two Spring Trainings with the Marlins due to knee surgeries on his right knee.
"As Spring Training is going along, we'll have to monitor their playing time so we don't just throw them into the fire right off the bat," said Nodine. "But both of them are doing very, very good."
First baseman Jesus Montero has recovered from a hand injury that required stitches after being involved in a car accident while playing winter ball in Venezuela, he and will report to camp early -- with the pitchers and catchers -- on Feb. 12. Montero is being viewed primarily as a first baseman now, though general manager Jack Zduriencik said he might see a little duty behind the plate early in camp when extra catchers are needed.
Greg Johns is a reporter for MLB.com. Follow him on Twitter @GregJohnsMLB as well as his Mariners Musings blog. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


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Q: When is a hand bag not just a handbag ?
A: When it is also a piece of high jewellery and a sculptural object.
Such is the case, anyway, with Hermès's second foray into haute bijouterie (as opposed to haute joaillerie — the former starts with outrageous designs, the latter with mega stones). Their jeweller and shoe maestro Pierre Hardy created four different mini-handbags, in part inspired by the brand's iconic handbags, using gold and a LOT of precious stones. They are each functionally a "bracelet" and they actually work as (very small) handbags.In theory, anyway.
It seems to me the idea of anyone actually carrying a handbag worth €1.5m and made of intertwining chains covered in 11,000 diamonds, or a rose gold version of the Kelly bag with crocodile scales and 1,160 diamonds is a little nuts, and I mentioned this to Patrick Thomas, the CEO of the brand. He laughed. Read more


text: Show Hide image Politics 17 January 2013 Bury me in paper How will the "Zelig of all materials" fare in the digital age? Sign up for our weekly email * Let me tell you a story. It's a story that has not been told enough, and that we need to remind ourselves of as we grow ever further from its simple meanings and its truth. It is a creation story. An epic story of origins. A story that begins in good old-fashioned fabular fashion with a eunuch in an emperor's court in imperial China and his discovery of a strange new invention. It features great heroes and villains and it encompasses the lives and fates of every nation. And it is a story that has no conclusion, despite doommongers peddling endless rumours of its imminent end. The story begins around 105AD with our eunuch, Cai Lun, a court official of the Han Dynasty, reporting on an invention that used mashed-up tree bark to produce an extraordinary material. Macerated bark fibres, says Cai Lun, are being mixed with water in a vat, into which a mesh or mould is dipped and from which the excess liquid is drained; the resulting pulpy mass is then hung to dry. This thing, this thin white precious thing, is – of course! – paper. And the story paper tells is the story of civilisation. As we are weighed down with our everproliferating items of corporatised, licensable digital kit, and become ever more like anthro-info-conduits – walking, talking human slurry pits of undigested data – it is often easy to forget that paper was and is and is likely to remain the most ubiquitous, the most useful and also the most easily recyclable of man-made communication devices. Indeed, paper is still the ancient communication device that all modern communication devices seek, pathetically, to emulate: cheap to make and easy to inscribe; durable, readable, portable, disposable; the screen as the ultimate page. But that is not all. Paper is and always has been more than just a medium for commu - nication. It's more than just the archetypal data storage system. It has a much darker, stranger, more profound history. It performs numerous other obvious and important roles in our lives, roles that our tablets and e-readers and smartphones can't even begin to emulate or adopt. What is the biggest difference between an iPad and a notepad? Honestly? Seriously? You can't wipe your arse with an iPad – not yet. Paper still reaches the parts that other products cannot reach. It plumbs untold depths and scales great heights. It is art, litter, money, trash. It's the bearer of good news: a transmitter of despair. Steel, timber and concrete may usefully serve as the foundations of a house, but for 2,000 years paper has served as the foun - dation of entire cultures, governments and economic systems. Paper also remains the spiritual technology par excellence, the perfect multifaith, multipurpose platform for almost any religious event or occasion, and it has the advantage over other popular spiritual technologies, such as blood, animal carcasses, crystals, hairshirts, metal cilices or Scientology E-Meters, because it is light, flexible and flammable, is capable of being decorated and inscribed, and does not require batteries. In Hong Kong and China and Taiwan, people buy mock-money and cardboard ingots and all sorts of other paper gewgaws and tchotchkes, as well as big-ticket items, including paper fridges and cookers and cars, as gifts to be burned for their dearly departed and to ease their passage through the Other World. Our world, too, this lower world, remains a vast realm of pulp, where we propitiate the gods and please ourselves with ream upon ream of paper. Basically, we are living in a giant joss shop. Anything and everything has been made from paper. The current standard industry figures suggest that there are roughly 14,000 designed end uses for the stuff, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. There are, in addition, all the undesigned end uses, and all the odd end uses we no longer have a use for. Unlikely as it seems, paper has been used to make wheels – on American railway cars in the 19th century (though they had the obvious disadvantage of often bursting into flames). And flying machines: the Montgol - fiers, lest we forget, were a family of papermakers, their balloons made of paper and silk. And boats: back in the 1990s the Scottish artist George Wyllie sailed his 80-foot artwork Paper Boat both down the Clyde and up the Hudson. (Wyllie was following in the considerable paper-wake of John Taylor, whose epic autobiographical poem "The Praise of Hemp-seed: with the voyage of Mr Roger Bird and the Writer hereof, in a Boat of browne-Paper, from London to Quinborough in Kent", published in 1620, has to be read to be believed.) During the 18th and 19th centuries, manufacturers discovered that just about every sort of household item and requisite could be moulded and made from cheap papier mâché and tricked out with decorative transfer-print floral designs – and so they were, including beds, wardrobes, cupboards, whatnots and tea trays. You might almost have lived in a house made entirely of paper –wallpapered, paper curtains, paper carpet, paper furniture – and dressed in paper clothes. Paper, to borrow a phrase from the German paper sculptor Thomas Demand, is the Zelig of all materials. It can be cut, folded, bent, twisted, lacquered and waterproofed into objects of any shape and size. It is also delightfully easily disposed of. The architect Frank Gehry, who dabbled with cardboard furniture back in the early 1970s, remarked: "The nice thing about it is that you can simply tear off a bit and throw it away if you don't like it." But these are only the more obvious, outer manifestations of our deep-rooted paper culture, the paper-crust, as it were, the everyday world of artefacts and objects. What is truly astonishing is the vast hidden substratum of paper that has informed and determined our lives and our identities and our imaginations, so much so that we might rightly be described as paper people, creatures spawned on rags and sheets, announced in newsprint and filed away in endless paper archives. Think about it: everything that matters to us – still – happens on paper. We are born, and are issued with a birth certificate. We collect more certificates at school. And another when we marry. And yet another when we divorce, and buy a house, and die. We are encased and inscribed with deeds and contracts, engrafted into paper, which becomes our artificial skin – and which outlives us. Byron in canto three of Don Juan meditates on "to what straits old Time reduces/Frail man, when paper — even a rag like this,/Sur - vives himself, his tomb, and all that's his". Paper records and determines how we live and, indeed, where we live. In her book Estates: an Intimate History (2007), Lynsey Hanley describes growing up on the Chelmsley Wood Estate in Birmingham and the great postwar project of urban renewal and regeneration, a project born on paper and executed on the drawing boards of the Labour government. (The process worked roughly like this: Richard Crossman, Labour's minister for housing, legislated for Birmingham City Council to purchase green-belt land; the city architect, a Mr Maudsley, signed off the plan; and then, five years later, after all the blueprints and site drawings, the work was complete and all those people who had spent years on a waiting list got to move into their new homes.) Paradise, made from paper. Paper-made prisons, too. One of the most fascinating and shocking works on Nazi technocracy and bureaucracy is Die restlose Erfassung (1984) by the German investigative journalist Götz Aly and social historian Karl Heinz Roth, translated into English in 2004 as The Nazi Census. The book describes exactly how the complex system of identification cards and population registers allowed the Nazis first to locate and then to monitor the Jews in Germany, making them, finally, easily available for murder and extermination. A more recent example of the casual link between paper documents and death can be found in Africa, in Rwanda in 1994, with the mass slaughter of the Tutsi population by Hutu militiamen. The political scientist Timothy Longman has summed up the disturbingly simple equation at work there: "Since every Rwandan was required to carry an identity card, people who guarded barricades demanded that everyone show their card before being allowed to pass. Those with 'Tutsi' marked on their cards were generally killed on the spot." So, paper has long been used by tyrants and oppressors: a technology imposed on us from outside, by others and by the state, constructing our identity for us and through us, punishing us, crushing us, even killing us. (Paper as a weapon? Of course, of course. From bomber-kites to war games to gun cartridge casings to uniforms and armour, paper has been used in every conceivable fashion both to inflict torture and to protect from pain. In China during the late Tang Dynasty, Governor Xu Shang trained a notorious elite army of a thousand men who were equipped with armour made of thick layers of paper; they were invincible. And in Essex in the 1970s, we children used to make V-shaped paper pellets from blotting paper, which was heavy, and which stung, and which left a satisfying inky stain.) Yet paper is also the means by which we have most often shaped ourselves in becoming individuals, interiorised, unique and distinct. It is the means by which we have enjoyed and embraced and enhanced our lives: art, games, puzzles, literature, diaries, scrapbooks, photos, mementoes. This is the great paradox of paper. It makes us legible; it also makes us erasable – memorable and dispensable, priceless and worthless at the same time. Just as we have used paper to plan and to implement death and destruction, so, too, we have used it to resist and to attempt to overcome that inevitable destruction. We have used paper to protest and to plead our case. Take the Germans announcing their imminent arrival in Paris in 1940 using air-dropped leaflets, or the millions of leaflets that were dropped on Iraq during the Gulf war, or the estimated 20 billion leaflets dropped over Vietnam by the Americans, all of them bearing essentially the same message, over and over again: surrender or die. And take, in contrast, the example of the Sasaki family. On the morning of 6 August 1945, the Sas - akis – the mother, Fujiko, her four-year-old son, Masahiro, her two-year-old daughter, Sadako, and her mother-in-law, Matsu – were eating breakfast. A neighbour called out and told them to look up into the sky. Mrs Sasaki went outside, looked at the parachutes, and returned inside. Then the sky exploded. Mrs Sasaki and her children survived the bomb on Hiroshima but Sadako developed leukaemia, caused by the radiation. In hospital, Sadako began to fold paper cranes; she had heard the old story that if you fold a thousand paper cranes, your wish will come true. Taking the sheets of paper used to wrap medicines, Sadako folded one and a half thousand origami cranes. She died on 25 October 1955, aged 12. Her parents buried her with hundreds of the cranes and distributed the rest to her friends and classmates, who decided to honour her example of fortitude by campaigning with her family to have a statue erected in her memory. And so, in 1958, on 5 May, Children's Day in Japan, a statue of Sadako holding a paper crane was unveiled at the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima. To this day, visitors bring their own origami cranes to the memorial to pray for peace. I should confess at this stage, in case you hadn't guessed, that I am a fulltime paper-stainer, my life having been spent with consuming and producing paper products – writing books and articles, to no great success, it has to be said, no great profit or gain, a life spent amid paper, marking paper, marking time. Which makes me, I suppose, in a phrase from Captain Francis Grose's Lexicon Balatronicum: a Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit and Pickpocket Eloquence (1811), a "paper scull", "A thin-scull'd foolish fellow". I am like Sammy Mountjoy, the narrator of William Golding's great novel Free Fall (1959): "I tick. I exist. I am poised eighteen inches over the black rivets you are reading, I am in your place, I am shut in a bone box and trying to fasten myself on the white paper. The rivets join us together and yet for all the passion we share nothing but our sense of division." Perhaps my greatest testimony to paper will be my burial in an Ecopod, a beautiful coffin hand-made from recycled newspapers in Brighton by a father and son, Peter and Gar Rock, and finished with paper made from 100 per cent mulberry pulp, each one equipped with carrying straps and a calico mattress, feather linings an optional extra. The coffins come in white, gold, plain indigo blue, indigo blue with white screen-printed doves, plain Indian red, Indian red screenprinted with an Aztec sun, plain forest green, or forest green with a screen-printed Celtic cross. I'm going for the forest green with the Celtic cross. There is no denying that we are entering a world beyond paper – or certain forms of paper. Whither books? Yet we need to remember that books existed before paper and that they will exist long after paper. It is far too early to dismiss or ignore paper in all its other uses. As Jacques Derrida once pointed out, "To say farewell to paper today would be rather like deciding one fine day to stop speaking because you had learned to write." Production and consumption of paper are increasing, not decreasing. According to current information, approximately 83 million rolls of toilet paper are produced each day. Slowly, alternatives to wood pulp are being adopted, even by the big paper-producing companies, to meet the growing demand for sustainable sources of fibre: kenaf, hemp, jute and flax. Paper pulp can be made from any kind of macerated vegetable fibre, as it was in ancient China: bark, nettles, reeds, cow parsley, cotton, bamboo, yucca, cellulose recovered from dung – anything that can provide that precious, seminal fluid to make our tea bags and our bandages, our beer mats and our board games, our cigarettes and shoeboxes, our tickets, tags and labels. Even in the digital age, paper remains the ghost in our machines, the shadow behind every act of hi-tech digital communication. The word-processing document I am typing into and on to has the appearance of a sheet of fresh white paper. In the corner of the screen sits an image of a waste paper basket. There are pages, paragraphs and margins. I will "file" the "document" in a "folder". Our most cherished new technologies still resemble the page: the iPad is like a jotter; the Kindle like a book; the mobile phone a pocket diary. The paper book is dead, but the story goes on. Long live paper! Ian Sansom is the author of "Paper: an Elegy" (Fourth Estate, £14.99) Subscribe from just £1 per issue This article first appeared in the 14 January 2013 issue of the New Statesman, Dinosaurs vs modernisers More


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I have yet to purchase anything from Dorothy Perkins. I know! I know! I really need to get on the ball with all these brands that I'm loving!! I sit here and drool about their clothes, I need to just hurry up and order something. Maybe it will be from my current "Wish List?"
I really need everything here. Each piece is so classic and some come with a little twist. And I'm loving the colors. This Apricot Drape Pocket Jacket is yummy!! Want it now!! You know it must be serious if I'm using two exclamation marks!! LOL!!
All I know is my Dorothy Perkins "Wish List" gets longer every time. I need to make this purchase happen!!
**DP carries up to a US 18 and does ship to the U.S.


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text:
Previous Lecture
Complete and continue
Remarkable You
The $260,000 Blog Post
Everything Has Changed - Why Social is So Important
Why Build Your Personal Brand?
Why Should You Build Your Brand - Exercise: Google Yourself!
Defining Your Personal Brand: Whitepaper: PDF Download
Creating Positive Content About Yourself & Owning Your Google Results
Getting Started Building Your Brand
Start Your Personal Digital Brand: Linkedin
Linkedin Overview
Step 1. Beginner
Step 2. Intermediate
Step 3. Advanced
Linkedin - PDF Download
Start Your Personal Digital Brand: Blogging
Blogging Overview
Step 1. Launch Your Blog - Step by Step Video Tutorial to Launch a Wordpress Blog in 15 Minutes or Less
Step 2: What to Blog About?
Step 3: Tools to Help You Write Better
Hemingway APP Step by Step Video Tutorial
Other Social Media Places
Other Social Places: Overview
Other Social Places: Whitepaper: PDF Download
College Students
College Students
Looking for a Job
Job Seekers
Like my Job
Like My Job
How to Find the Time?
How to Find the Time?
Co-Schedule - Video Tutorial
Co-Schedule PDF DOWNLOAD
How to Make Money From Your Blog
Building Your List
SUMOME - APP to help build your list - Video Tutorial
How to Create a Podcast: Downloadable PDF White Paper
Pillars for Success
Pillar 1: Generate Ideas
Pillar 2: Define your passion
Pillar 3: Work, Focus & Persist
Pillar 4: Become More Self-Aware
Pillar 5: Do Good
Pillar 6: Use Technology the Right Way
Pillar 7: Get Curious
Networking White Paper: PDF Download
Thank You Message from Chris
Appendix: Resources
Remarkable YOU Podcast
Book in a Box
Bluehost Webhosting
Custom Blog Theme: Theme Forest
Top 10 Book Recommendations from Chris
Co-Schedule Headline Analyzer
Hubspot: Sidekick/Signals
Thank You Message from Chris
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text:
Monuments man: Iowa native led the greatest treasure hunt in history
IOWA CITY, IA. — There is good reason why George Clooney decided to write, direct and star in a movie about a small band of Allied soldiers whose duty during World War II was to save and recover the world's greatest European artwork: It's a great story.
But here's the part you might not know: Clooney's character is based on George Leslie Stout, an art conservator and museum curator who was born in Winterset and grew up there, later graduating from the University of Iowa.
Imagine: An Iowa boy leading the greatest treasure hunt in history.
"The Monuments Men," which opens in theaters Feb. 7, is based on the true story of eight Allied soldiers whose unwritten mission was to go into Germany and rescue masterpieces pilfered by the Nazis and secreted away in castles, churches and salt mines all over the country. Working behind enemy lines and under pressure, this group of art curators, museum directors and art historians — known as the Monuments Men — was in a race against the German army, which had been ordered by Hitler to destroy everything as the Third Reich fell. Stout led many of the operations that sought to avoid the destruction of 1,000 years of culture and save some of the world's greatest treasures.
Lincoln Kirstein, a member of the Monuments Men and founding director of the New York City ballet, who died in 1996, said in his account of events, Stout "was the greatest war hero of all. He actually saved all the art that everybody else talked about."
So, who was this champion for the world's celebrated artwork?
Stout grew up in Winterset, which is best known for its covered bridges and as the birthplace of John Wayne.
Truth is, Wayne only lived in Winterset while he was a baby, which doesn't make him much of a local hero. Stout's roots, however, date back to 1867 when his grandfather — who was in poor health from injuries suffered in the Civil War — settled in the community that today numbers about 5,000 residents.
Thirty years later, Stout arrived, the oldest of six sons born to Lulu Mae and Abraham Lincoln Stout. At Winterset High School, Stout's nickname was "Stouty," and his interests included literature, acting and journalism, said Nancy Trask, director of the Winterset Public Library, and Stout's biggest hometown fan.
Trask has been singing Stout's praises since 2009, when she discovered Robert Edsel's book, "The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History." It's the same book that inspired Clooney.
"When the book came out, I realized right then that this was someone special and began plugging the book," said Trask, who even tried inviting the author to town until she learned his fee was $20,000.
Still, Stout's legacy didn't gain traction until news spread that Clooney was making a movie and playing a character named Frank Stokes, who is based on Stout. Since then, Trask has been busy making presentations about this newly discovered hometown hero.
"Everybody is seeing this thing on TV and stuff in the newspapers," she said. "We're a little sore that they had to change the names of characters in the movie."
After high school, Stout attended Grinnell College for two years before serving another two years in the medical corps in World War I. While a soldier, Stout performed with a theatrical troupe that entertained soldiers with a play called "The Khaki Carnival."
When he returned from the war, Stout attended the University of Iowa and became interested in art after taking a drawing class. "His family was so proud of him when he was in Iowa City," Trask said.
Stout graduated from the U of I in 1921 and three years later married Margaret Hayes, the daughter of Samuel Hayes, who taught law at the U of I. Shortly after their wedding, the couple took off for Europe to explore artwork. When they returned, Stout enrolled at Harvard University, where he graduated with a master's degree in art in 1929. At Harvard's Fogg Art Museum, Stout began his career in art conservation, a field in which he would make an indelible mark.
"Stout was a no-nonsense Iowa guy who established art conservation," said Sean O'Harrow, director of the University of Iowa Museum of Art. "He made art conservation into a science, and the three principles he established way back then are still the backbone of the practice."
O'Harrow said he likes to think the required drawing course at the U of I set the stage for Stout's invaluable contributions to the arts.
"Makes you wonder what he might have done had he not taken that drawing course, which fueled his interest in the arts," he said. "If there is anyone to admire, it's Stout. He accomplished so much."
With the nation at war and the military needing men, Stout left the Fogg Museum and applied for active duty in 1943. He was in his mid-40s and the father of two young sons. His first job was testing camouflage paint for airplanes. But his credentials soon caught the attention of military officials who transferred him in 1944 to the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives section, or MFAA.
The unit was made possible by the Roberts Commission — the American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in Europe, chaired by Supreme Court Justice Owen Roberts — which had been formed at the request of President Franklin Roosevelt.
In his book, Edsel wrote, "There was no formal mission statement, or even set chain of command" for the Monuments Men. "A general guidebook to conservation procedures had been culled from Stout's expertise and writings on the subject. But the Monuments Men had no formal training."
They did, however, have Stout, whom Edsel described as a conscientious and unassuming leader.
"He was also meticulous, a trait that carried over to his personal appearance: carefully swept-back hair, trim worsted suits, and a fine pencil mustache," Edsel wrote. "Stout was dapper, debonair, and resolutely unflappable. But beneath his placid exterior was a brilliant and restless mind, capable of great leaps of understanding and far-reaching vision. He also possessed another essential quality: extraordinary patience."
Stout's character was certainly tested in April 1945 when he arrived at the Merkers mine complex in Thuringia, Germany, an underground network of more than 35 miles of tunnels and dozens of openings. Stout had no inventory of the mine's contents, only a list of the museums and collections from which they came.
To make matters worse, Stout had only a few days to assess the contents of the mine, pack it and remove it from the area before Gen. George Patton pulled up stakes and moved on.
The Third Reich used many mines to store its loot, sometimes booby-trapping them with explosives. Retrieving the artwork was not for the faint of heart. Two of the Monuments Men were killed in action.
According to Edsel's account, Stout was unable to procure any of the supplies he requested to move the 40 tons of artwork found in the mine. No boxes, crates, files, tape or packing material. With only two days to go, Stout finished his plan for evacuating the mine, and work began. His solution for packing materials was using a thousand requisitioned sheepskin coats, the kind German officers used on the Russian front.
Edsel wrote that the evacuation started with 25 men and later grew to 50, 75 and then 80. Finally, 1,300 prisoners of war were brought in to assist the operation. By the time they finished, the art convoy consisted of 32 10-ton trucks, and Stout's inventory read: "393 paintings (uncrated), 2,091 print boxes, 1,214 cases, and 140 textiles, representing most of the Prussian state art collection."
A German art expert who had been staying with the treasure at Merkers told Stout it would take eight weeks to move the mine's content. Stout did it in six days.
Fellow Monuments Men member Kirstein later wrote in his account of the Merkers mine operation: "The last time I saw them, Lieutenant Stout was gravely whirling a swing aerometer in all corners of their new home, determining the humidity."
Stout later helped move 80 truckloads from the Altaussee mine, in the Austrian Alps, which contained some of the world's greatest artwork.
In his book, Edsel reported that when Stout left Europe in August 1945 after little more than 13 months, he had put 50,000 miles on his old Volkswagen and visited nearly every area of action in the U.S. Twelfth Army group territory. During his entire tour of duty, he had taken exactly one and a half days off.
But when Stout left Europe, he didn't go home. He requested a transfer to Japan where he served as the chief of the Arts and Monuments Division at Headquarters of the Supreme Command for the Allied Powers in Tokyo until mid-1946.
The military recognized Stout with a Bronze Star and Army Commendation Medal.
O'Harrow said part of the reason few people know about the Monuments Men is because the participants themselves didn't talk about it, typical of men of the Greatest Generation.
"It was a horrific time, and people didn't want to talk about their experiences," O'Harrow said. "Stout was from Iowa, and Iowans don't brag about their accomplishments."


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THE Rocky Horror Show is celebrating its 40th year- 40 years of outrageous dancing, singing and loyal fans dressing to kill. And to commemorate this there is all new anniversary party production with an all star cast. Former X-Factor contestant and classically trained baritone singer Rhydian is playing Rocky, which means baring all in a small pair of pants. He talks about working out, wearing leopard print knickers and the pressure of X-Factor.
Rhydian had just been to the gym when I spoke to him. He doesn't wear many clothes in his new part so he has to make sure he is in tip top shape.
He said: "I am playing Rocky so I have got to be in relatively good shape. "I have got to go every day. It is a bit of a bore but I get paid for it."
The Rocky Horror Show has a cult following with fans all over the globe dressing up in outrageous clothes to watch the show. It is probably one of the rudest musicals and has had a slight make-over for its 40th. The stage show was created by Richard O'Brien.
As well as Rhydian the new cast includes West End star Oliver Thornton, who has appeared in Priscilla Queen of the Desert and more, and he will be playing Frank 'n' Furter. Former Emmerdale and Waterloo Road actress Roxanne Pallett will star as Janet and Ben Forster, who won the ITV1 series Superstar, will star as Brad.
The story follows Brad and Janet as they come across the scandalous Frank'n'Furter, rippling Rocky and vivacious Magenta.
It includes the musical songs Time Warp, Sweet Transvetite and Damn It Janet.
Rhydian, who is also musical theatre actor and TV presenter, said about the show: "It is like no other. It is a relatively small cast. It is a cult show. It has a huge following. It is a big party."
And he said musicals are his passion due to his training. He has starred in The War of the Worlds-Live on Stage!, We Will Rock You and Grease since he came second in the X-Factor in 2007 to Leon Jackson. This will be his fourth musical.
He said: "I thought Rocky was a good role for me. They were thinkning about Frank'n'furter but I'm not sure if I would be able to deal with all the audience participation."
He first saw the show when he was 19. The 29-year-old laughed: "It is outrageous. There are so many sexual innuendos- you lose all your inibitions. "It is so much fun. Last Thursday and Friday did a couple of scenes with Brad and Janis.
"It is just outrageous. I am wearing very little- I am wearing leopard print knickers. "They are really not comfortable."
And he said the worst thing is he has to wear a dance belt which is quite tight, although he laughed he is going to get his custom made so it is a bid wider. And he seems pretty comfortable with the role although he did say the only role he couldn't do is in Hair, as you have to get completely naked.
He said: "There are so many cameras and phones in the audience. It is probably not a good idea."
He added: "You know these WWF wrestlers- they wear very little. I am wearing gold bits and pants- just pretend I am a wrestler."
And he said he still thinks the show is outrageous, even now. Rhydian said: "It is so left of the field. It is just rebellious particularly at the time when it was written in the 70s."
As well as being in the musicals he has released four albums, the first went platinum. He has toured the UK and is an ambassador of The Prince's Trust.
He said: "I certainly do a lot with the Prince's Trust. It is difficult to say no to Prince Charles. I have done a few things with him. He's awesome."
He also works with the Carers Trust, which is mum works for, and Music For Autism, as his singing teachers works for the charity and has a severely autistic son. And as well as this he presented an eight-part TV series for Welsh channel, S4C.
He said: "It is really good having my own show. It was a lot of work and pressure. We recorded three shows a day. It was a great experience. I was honoured that the channel thought I could carry that responsibility. There were great viewing figures."
He said he would like to do more series but he said first and foremost he is a singer and an actor. He saw a couple of episodes of the X-Factor and he surprised Christopher Maloney was in the final three.
Rhydian said about Chris: "I feel a bit sorry for him in fairness. He has done jolly well. He will make a lot of money for about four months. Save it, enjoy it."
When he was on the show in 2007 he was favourite to win, but Leon pipped him to the post. His mentor was Dannii Minogue.
He said: "It was an amazing time- it's five years now. It was at the height of the show." But he you do need to have the wherewithal to prepare yourself for afterwards to keep working. He said: "People still remember me after five years because of my hair and name. X-Factor gave me a brand which is essential."
Another album will be on its way but not quite yet. He said: "I just want to be booked for the next 25 years or more."
The Rocky Horror Show is at the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre from February 4- 9 at 8pm with Friday and Saturday performances at 5.30 and 8.30pm. Tickets range from £10-£25 from www.atgtickets.com/aylesbury or call 0844 8717644.
For more leisure stories go to www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/leisure for interviews, I Love My Local and what's on.


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Apparently there's something to Jfm0830's comment about chicken being in the air as I grilled some last night as well.
I put fresh herbs, butter, salt, and pepper between the skin and the meat and noticed that while the meat did pick up some flavor it was more prevalent in the skin. Has anyone else ever noticed this? I cooked at about 375 so maybe that had something to do with it, but I can't recall a situation like this before.
No complaints, though...I love chicken skin!


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Would you like to save as your currency permanently or for this visit only?
New Center
I thought the staff were very kind and helpful. The food in the restaurant (we ate an early breakfast) was very delicious and good value for the money. Everything was clean as far as I could tell. The room! I had a horrible night sleep. The bed was not comfortable, which is my opinion. The thermostat is right next to the heater and I think because of this, the room was constantly hot AND cold. The room was incredibly dry and consequently made me very dry-mouthed when I needed to be the opposite.
Nasty dirt heat didn't work well paper thin walls
What did I like? My car did not end up on blocks, and it was a $6 Uber ride to downtown. The staff was pleasant. What did I not like? For >$200/night the following were unacceptable to me...The broken glass in the window, blood on the lampshade, only 2 two towels for a noted party of 4, A/C that didn't work, having to walk downstairs to get the fan we request be brought up to us because it never came, and the "mysterious" charge on our credit card at 5am that took two people to explain and blame the person who checked us in. That's what I did not like.
The staff was friendly and helpful. The heat in the room wouldn't regulate. woke up at three am in a sweat and checked the room thermostat. It registered 90. Tried to turn heat down but it continued to blast out of the register. Ended up turning if off and opening the window. The walls between the rooms are very thin. We heard every conversation in the room adjacent to ours. Eavesdropping was fun until that family decided to wrestle and crank up their music. After a half hour of that I finally had to do that awkward thing where you knock on your neighbors door and beg a quieter life out of them
The bed was comfortable. The Air conditioner didn't cool enough.


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Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Paul Maholm threw a 79-pitch simulated game at Turner Field on Monday and hopes to continue his recovery later in the week.
The left-handed Maholm felt no discomfort during the simulation, in which he was up and down six times. He looks to begin a rehab assignment by this weekend and could re-join the Braves' staff as early as next week.
Maholm went on the disabled list in late July with a bruised left wrist.
His return could mean a six-man rotation or it could give other Braves starters some much needed rest. However, manager Fredi Gonzalez is not willing to rush the decision, as he described to Mark Bowman of MLB.com.
"We could give somebody a rest and plug Pauly in there and do that if we have to," Gonzalez said. "You could go six-man [rotation]; I haven't looked at the schedule. Do you want to do that and disrupt that? I don't know, we'll see. But if everything goes well, you're still talking nine days from now — five and then another four after [the rehab start]. You're talking eight or nine days before you make that decision."
Atlanta will be expanding its active roster on September 1 from 25 to 40, which will give the Braves even more opportunities to rest its pitching staff going into the playoffs.
Maholm has posted a 9-9 record on the season with a 4.41 ERA and has been a member of the Braves' starting rotation since being acquired, along with outfielder Reed Johnson, from the Pittsburgh Pirates at last year's trade deadline.
- Be sure to "like" Braves 101 on Facebook and follow Braves 101 on Twitter.
Photo Credit: bigstory.ap.org
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text: Kalagaraz1 103 Report post Posted April 7, 2013 (edited) I'm just curious what you guys think about a mmo with turn based combat like final fantasy style? If you think it would work, how would you implement it? Would you have visible enemies in the over world and bumping into them takes you into turn-based mode invisible to players not in the battle? Would you render the combat in the over world clearly visible to other players? Would you just have "random encounters" that jump you into turn based mode? I personally think the idea has potential, but I know a lot of people hate turn-based combat. I like turn based combat, but I do get annoyed being constantly sucked into fights when I'm on a mission or something and I don't really NEED to fight and turn based fights seem to take forever. EDIT: I also think it's something new and hence my reason for this post. The MMO genre as of late seems to have gotten bland and lacking in innovation. Really needs some new ideas out there. Edited April 7, 2013 by Kalagaraz1 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites


text:
hi alex,
we can retrieve message easily from mysql database,and sent t0o flsms and finally to the mobile user..but the now problem is how can we update the database by a messge,like if the user send say rice 25 .then it has to update the database table row ion that rice to 25.
my focus here is .hw can i save the keyword name in this case,say for ex,if i saved keyword as rice .then how can i retrieve 25 in the message content..n give that value to the php script.....will you please help me out in this regard...
Views: 110
morgan,i got you what you said ,if you put PRICE as a keyword ,then my question is what i need to include in the url,anyhow i have to get the variable "rice " in my php script to set the value "25" .i have to get the whole message content like for example say :price rice 25 is the message content,now php script hav to get the input saparately as price in one variable,rice to another variable,and 25 to another variable.how can i fed this from flsms to php..and even if i write saparately keyword for every item,its nt a efficient one,its as like filling all keywords in the software....
i hope you got me ,what i said to you...
thanks in advance,
let's try to keep this simple:
Just create a single keyword, like PRICE, and set an external command action for it.
This action would be an HTTP Request, reaching a web script you wrote, and where the whole SMS content is passed.
It should look like : http://yourdomain/yourscript.php?content=${message_content}
That way, your script will receive everything the user wrote after "price".
Then, just split the request (see http://fr.php.net/manual/en/function.explode.php), and you'll have your different arguments.
Hope that helps.
hi kmorgan,
thank you very much,actually now i got to kno,why we are using $messge content, thanks a lot morgan,i ll back to you if i got any doubt ok,keep in touch..
Hi Ramakrishna,
${message_content} is one of the subtitution variables recognised by FrontlineSMS. This token will be replaced by its actual value at sendtime.
Let's take an example:
- You have a "SAY" keyword, which forwards messages to your mobile
- The contact "FLSMS Fan" (number +123456) writes: "SAY FrontlineSMS is awesome"
Then the substitutions variable will look something like:
${sender_name} -> FLSMS Fan
${sender_number} -> +123456
${keyword} -> SAY
${message_content} -> FrontlineSMS is awesome
Then, in your Autoforward action, you could write this as the text message:
Hi, ${sender_name} (${sender_number}) just used the keyword "${keyword}" and is saying: ${message_content}
This will send you something like:
Hi, FLSMS Fan (+123456) just used the keyword "SAY" and is saying: FrontlineSMS is awesome
Now you can maybe understand better why we are using the ${message_content} substitution variable in our PRICE example:
This way, your PHP script will have in its "content" variable, the value of everything following the keyword "PRICE".
PRICE rice 25 ----> The PHP "content" variable will be : "rice 25"
PRICE pepper 30 ----> The PHP "content" variable will be : "pepper 30"
In both cases, splitting the "content" variable into words (with the "space" character) will result in having the product (first word) and the actual price (second word).
Hope you understand it better now :-)
Best of luck,
hi morgan,
till now i was doing my website,that too both in english and also in our regional language kannada.it s very nice,and even we got many prize for that.and in that we are providing almost all information regarding farmers needs.
now with regarding to the FLSMS i ve one doubt regarding my code that i written...
i ll paste here..
$con = mysql_connect("localhost","root","");
if (!$con)
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
$produit = explode(" ", $produit);
mysql_select_db("frontlinesms", $con);
mysql_query("UPDATE prduct SET price=$second
WHERE pname = 'mango'");
i ll send the message as mango 25...now my intension here is to update the table by name prduct with mango price as 25.
but now am getting error like <br><fontsize>.....that is page source is commming as reply messge to me.and mango price automettically set to zero..
hiope you reply for this...
© 2017 Created by FrontlineSMS Admin. Powered by


text:
The Virginia Center for Diabetes Prevention and Education (VCDPE) has been a unique provider of educational programming in Virginia since 1987. Affiliated with the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, the VCDPE's programs and resources benefit healthcare providers throughout the Commonwealth.
To improve the quality and accessibility of care for persons in Virginia with diabetes, by providing educational programs and resources for persons at risk for and with diabetes and for diabetes providers, based on current research and best practices.
- For persons with, or at high risk of, diabetes, provide educational programs targeting community-based settings, such as workplaces, churches, fitness centers, and community centers.
- Increase access to diabetes patient education programs in medically underserved areas of Virginia through the use of telehealth technologies.
- Improve diabetes-related knowledge and practices of healthcare providers across Virginia, including physicians, medical residents, nurses, dietitians, dietetic interns, and pharmacists, by providing high-quality diabetes professional education programs.


text:
Backpackers Family House
Real Reviews
Real reviews from fellow travellers
These are trusted reviews from guests who have actually stayed here. We hope you find them helpful.
Note: we only give a property a rating once it has received a minimum of 3 reviews.
- Page:1/1
- " Nice hostel. Only a 10-15 min walk from Kennedy park. Breakfast was basic. Clean facilities "
- 27 Aug 2015 Anonymous USA


text:
Summer on the Shore
We love relaxing summer evenings that include good friends, fresh food, and a beautiful atmosphere. Our Montego Melamine Dinnerware takes you on a much needed vacation right to the beach!
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Getting everything from your kitchen to your outdoor dining table can be frustrating. Using a coordinating Montego Melamine Tray makes this transition much simpler.
Cool Off with a Beverage
Glass beverage jars are the perfect addition to a casual summer evening.


text:
FULSHEAR, Texas - The burned body of a female was found by a rancher in Fulshear.
The Fulshear Police Department said a rancher checking on his property in the 6000 block of Katy Fulshear Road on Monday at 10:30 a.m. made the discovery along a secluded dirt road. The cause of death was possibly blunt trauma or strangulation, according to the medical examiner.
Officials said the victim was fully clothed and not sexually assaulted. Investigators do not know if the woman was killed at the location or moved there. The body was unrecognizable.
"The body was damaged pretty extensively, so we're going to have to use dental records to ID the body," Fulshear Police Chief Kenny Seymour said.
The victim was between 20 and 30 years old, 5 feet to 5 feet 2 inches tall and very petite. She had dark-colored hair with a possible red tint. She had extensive dental work in the past.
Officials said the victim was wearing jeans, a red top and a belt with several metal rivet designs. A small necklace pendant found on the victim may help identify her.
"It's awful, especially in this remote area. You think this area of Houston is safe," Fulshear resident Michelle Thompson said.
Anyone with information about the victim's identity or the case is asked to call the Fulshear Police Department at 281-346-2202 or the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office at 281-341-4665.
Copyright 2012 by Click2Houston.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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PASADENA - After watching the Rose Parade every year on TV, grandparents Tom and Linda Anderson of Virginia decided it was time to see it live.
"We're very excited; my wife wants to get it off her bucket list," said Tom Anderson, who was buying three hot dogs at 7 a.m. "That's how she said it, too."
The Andersons made the trip with their son Tom, his wife Cathy and their 8-year-old granddaughter Savannah specifically to see the parade but they managed to do some sight-seeing, including a visit to the Huntington Library.
The petite woman who busily grilled and sold the pork hot dogs to Anderson on Pasadena Avenue north of Colorado Boulevard was Raquel Pelaez.
Pelaez, 40, tried to get a permit but the city would not give her one, she said, because of the type of food she was grilling.
"I'm going to wait, to see if they take it away or not," Pelaez, a mother of three who lives in Los Angeles, said after selling about 25 hot dogs. "I have to work so I can pay my bills, my rent, food for my children, their clothes."
Around the corner on Colorado Boulevard, Casey Bryant of Peggs, Okla., was carrying a large sign that read "Jesus Caused 9-11" on one side and "God kills, Repent" on the other.
Bryant, 30, comes to Pasadena each year with friends to spread his church's message before the start of the Rose Parade.
"The real God of the Bible is a very scary and terrifying God, a God who not only loves and died for the world for their sins but also causes calamity," he said, as security officers asked him and his three friends to keep walking down the boulevard.
While it would be great to help save a few souls from hell, he said, "our goal is just to serve the Lord" and preach His word.
During the parade, South Pasadena residents Sajan Kashyap and his wife Cheenu bumped into their friends Liz and Art Brox, also of South Pasadena, on the sidewalk of Orange Grove Boulevard north of Del Mar.
The two couples were chatting enthusiastically while enjoying the elaborate floats and impressive marching bands that paraded by.
"It's a very uplifting feeling when you see these people young and old, it makes you feel proud to be in this wonderful community," Kashyap, an attorney, said. "The faces of children, even news reporters are smiling today."
Evan Strand, 24, of Pasadena enjoyed viewing the parade on stilts, which allowed him to tower over other spectators - including his tall father - on Orange Grove Boulevard.
Strand, a professional ballet dancer, had been visiting with a friend in San Francisco before he made the six-hour drive to make it home in time for the parade. He's attended the Rose Parade nearly every year since he was born and this was his fourth year attending on stilts, he said.
"It's fun," Strand said. "People look at me when I'm up here and they're looking up wondering how I'm this tall ... From the parade, they can't see the stilts."
The Rose Queen and court had an unexpected escort for a 100-foot stretch of the Rose Parade route on Tuesday, as a man and his three mules abruptly walked onto Colorado Boulevard.
He said his name was Mule. He wore a tattered jacket held together by duct tape. His three mules carried all of Mule's belongings in packs slung across their backs. They didn't have names, according to their owner.
"They're just mules," said Mule, who was promoting his website 3mules.com.
But the quartet had a purpose.
"You got all this glitz and nice presentation, but when you look at us people on the ground, we are dirty, we smell, but we are real," Mule said. "We just wanted to bring something real to the parade."
Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies escorted Mule and his mules off the route. Sheriff's officials said they didn't plan to arrest Mule.
Staff Writer Brian Charles contributed to this report.
email@example.com 626-657-0988


text:
Central up to No. 14 in wrestling poll
PELLA—Central College inched up one spot to No. 14 in the National Wrestling Coaches Association Division III poll.
The Dutch, 7-1, were No. 15 in the last ranking two weeks ago and opened the season at No. 29. It's Central's highest ranking since 1991-92, when the Dutch were No. 5. Central posted four wins at the Gulf Coast Duals in Fort Myers, Fla., last Sunday.
Defending champion Wartburg College (6-0) remains at No. 1. Iowa Conference rival Coe College (5-3) slipped four spots to No. 8 while Luther College (1-3) climbed one notch to No. 15 and the University of Dubuque (7-2) jumped two spots to No. 16. Loras College (2-6) dropped out after a No. 28-rating in the previous poll.
In the individual rankings, senior Ryan Davis (Shreveport, La., Northwood HS) cracked the 149-pound lineup at No. 9. He posted four wins, including three victories by major decision, at the Gulf Coast Duals and improved to 13-3. Earlier this month he broke a 36-year-old school record with the fastest pin in a dual meet, scoring a 21-second fall against Knox College (Ill.).
Central has a break for the holidays and returns to the mat Jan. 10 for a 7 p.m. dual against Loras College at Dubuque.


text:
A new method of harvesting whole-plant corn for silage, called "corn shredlage," has been receiving a lot of interest lately. However, there is limited information available about this process.
In a new "Focus on Forage" article, Luiz Ferraretto and Randy Shaver with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Dairy Science, provide responses to the most frequently asked questions concerning this topic. They base their answers on a recent feeding trial involving corn shredlage fed to lactating dairy cows at the UW Blaine Arlington Dairy.
Source: University of Wisconsin – Extension Team Forage


text:
Game Overview
Name: Exile Online
Genre: Cyberpunk Dystopian MMO
Estimated Launch: TBA
Website: http://exile-online.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ExileOnline
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Exile_Online
Engine: Hero Engine
Platform: Windows
Exile Online is an in-development sandbox cyberpunk MMO set in the far future as mankind stuggles to survive political and social strife in a never ending world of plot and subterfuge. Our game will take leads and inspiration from many corners of the scifi/cyberpunk genre including: Bladerunner, Akira, Judge Dredd, Deus Ex, Total Recall and several other sources.
Imagine a world where intrigue and multiple storyline twists can happen at any moment. We will be straying far from the "go here kill 10 rabbits" mission archetype that seems to be so prevalent in other MMOs of today. Our world will be a place where the actions of one individual can have global consequences and ramifications. Players can choose between 11 unique factions, capture and control outposts, purchase and furnish their very own penthouse apartments or join up with a group of their closest buddies to go kill some musclebound meatheads.
Main Features
Exile online will feature in-depth guild mechanics. We believe guilds and clans are the heart of a game, so having diverse and interesting systems in place to encourage cooperative group play is what Exile online will be focused on.
Player Controlled towns/bases/outposts:
There will be powerful systems in place for guilds and players to create, take and hold territory. If a player is given a plot of land to defend, you can be sure they will fight tooth and nail to keep it.
Dynamic Avatar Creation:
Exile Online will make full advantage of advanced character creation and customization. Want that tattoo that your mother said you couldn't have? Want to dress up in a pink metal Tutu? You got it.
Fully Player driven economy:
All of the best items ingame will be crafted by players. In one form or another, everything you have on your character will be crafted by you or another player.
Player Housing:
Players can furnish their apartments to suit their own style and tastes. There will be a massive and wide variety of decoration and furnishings to choose from. Go on…put up that gyrating pole dancing platform that you always wanted, we won't judge you.
Innovative skill system:
Rather than force players to level from 1 to a finite number, our skill system will be fluid and varied. Players will not be forced to reroll a new character if they want to continue playing their first character. With time and effort, a player will be able to master every skill in the game.
About Us
Exile Gaming Studio is an independently owned company run and operated by founders Dan Anderson and Ben Ellis. We are currently developing on the HeroEngine platform using the HeroCloud and officially started work on the project 1st July 2012. The team has recently been expanding dramatically.
We now have a solid team that is committed to creating great content and features for the game. We believe in listening to our players. We have played games where the developers pretty much shun the community and turn a blind eye to every problem that their product has. We will listen, we will discuss and we will take a proactive approach to creating systems that people want to see in our game.


text:
Blog Directory
Browse the Blog Directory
Browse blogs from wide range of categorized blogs on our blog directory. Whether you are looking for niche blogs, personal blogs, Denmark blogs, Health blogs, Women's Health blogs you can find them all in our blog directory.
Submit your Blog
Or, Submit your blog and be included on our search engine friendly blog directory.
Denmark Women's HealthBrowsing Denmark Blogs » Health Blogs » Women's Health Blogs
Go over the featured blog sites about women's health at BlogsDB. Submit Women's Health blogs and get listed on our most visited blog directory on cyberspace.
No blogs are found on this category yet.


text:
Boot Barn Item #: 2001617
Easy Returns In Stores and Online
All Boots Ship Free (more...)
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Color: Click a button belowcolor size width
PrintBoot Features:
- Steel protective toe
- Full grain leather uppers
- Breathable leather lining
- Cushioned insole
- Broad square toe
- Perforated saddle vamp
Whether you are going for an afternoon ride or have a long day on the ranch, you can trust these steel toe Double-H boots to keep you comfortable all day long. These boots put a contemporary spin on the traditional roper style. They feature a low heel and a wide square toe that will provide comfort and look great. The perforated saddle vamp over the arch of the foot is stylish yet it adds to the durability of this boot. These boots also feature a cushioned insole to help you stay comfortable wherever the day or night may take you.
style(s): DH3568, DH3567
Toe Type: Broad Square
Outsole: Rubber
Lifestyle: Western
Heel Type: Roper
Lining: Leather
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Product Weight: 6 lbs
Closure: Pull-On
Print Whether you're hitting the trail or the road, Double-H Boots are the only way to go. Known for their motorcycle boots and their western boots, Double-H brings quality that is unsurpassed. It's definitely what's inside that counts and our friends at Double-H Boots feel the same way. They use the utmost care and detail when crafting their men's boots and women's boots. No matter what style you're looking for from Buckaroos to Western Work Boots to Motorcycle Boots, the Double-H construction ensures comfort and technology. Double-H boots are hand-crafted in Martinsburg, Pennsylvania. The American-made boots are hand constructed and hand inspected many times before that can be called Double-H Boots. These boots also feature 3/4 Opanka, double needle stitching to provide flexibility, stability and shock resistance. With other signature technology like DRYZ insoles, Poron foam and Oak ICE PillowCushion, you are sure to find the right boot for you.