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Dear space diary - A rolling SotS jotter
The Steam RPS Sots group "RPSotS" is having a game for inexperienced players obviously I'm familiar with the game, but I have played very little against people. The format of the game was a few turns a week, and after announcing that my favourite side was "Random" I found the game was under way. For the last few weeks we have stole an hour here or there and got the game rolling, This will be my AAR (DAR? during acton report) roughly 10 turns behind and obscuring any details that would really impact the current gameflow, but generally It will be quite open.
My Following post will simply describe SotS, from my point of view as a human empire, knowledge of the game is not required to read this.
Turn 0-16?: My Empire was ruled by an iron fist, the problem was it wasn't mine, After election I spent some time aboard the presidential [redacted]pleasure[/redacted] barge and A freak electrical storm turned off all communication [redacted]so we wouldnt be interrupted.[/redacted]
Turn 16: I return a while later to find the tactical command and Knowledge system(ai controlling player)AKA TaCoKS had been making crude choices in my absence, a few basic industrial technologies were researched, and the technology that allows the most basic Command 'n' Control ship, without a CnC ship the ships in combat with be limited to 6 and drawn at random from the systems population, with the most basic CnC up to 10 ships are allowed and they can be preset, that way keeping support ships like fuel tankers and colony pods out of the fight until all other forces are depleted, also another project was under research I shall codename Icarus which was still underway.
With any race in SotS bar Humans every star on the map is is a potential destination, some species are slower some are faster but every star is meaningful.
Humans see a hidden truth of space, rely on it and are imprisoned by it, space has natural roads between gravitational bodies, using these roads Humans are the fastest species in the game, without them they are the slowest.
Attachment 246
This is roughly how humans see the stars, note that roads cannot be dismounted, for either regular space or another road, so every journey is channelled by the map.
My Homeworld had 3 main paths from it, one road a dead end to a small and toxic world (with potential for terraforming) Another too far to travel yet (humans have a limited to how far any one leap they can take down a road, but future technology will extend my reach) except with an "extended range" scout ship making a one way trip and a third path of small hops along dusty boulder worlds. But these worlds have their most interesting aspects in space.
not my image, sorry internet
Turn 17-20: This is an Alien derelict, the husk of a once great weapon of war, Its a small piece of the command deck, broken and spinning in space but its weapons are still tracking hostiles (see: me). My Extended range recon ships so thoughtfully provided with lasers by TaCoKS was able under my command to dodge the fire arcs and in 2 rounds of combat blow off all of the derelicts weapons rendering it defenceless, what followed was piracy of the ships hull resulting in a short term tech rate bonus.
Turn 21-25: Nice as this was the real prize was in Orbit around yet another dust ball planet.
Internet, I promise I've started taking my own screen shots but I'm running a few turns behind
This is an Asteroid Monitor, rarer than the derelict, and more deadly, my token force had no means to challenge this hunk of death dealing so I simply drove away from it and fled the planet avoiding combat altogether, however after meeting an asteroid monitor a special project is sitting as a option in the research menu in what may take 12 turns or so your scientists will hack the abandoned rocks automated deffences and allow it to be controlled (as well as a small research rate bonus to offset your investment).
I'm afraid to report that at this point my love affair with Alpha protocol resulted in my outright missing a play session, but I am happy to report that the asteroid monitor fell under my control and then proceeded fought off an enemy fleet and TaCoKS built lots of terribly named warships and flooded them up the one channel open to me and started colonisation efforts on that small toxic world.
Turn 35-40: I go into the ship design menu and delete 30 rubbish design the AI set, Start a new design regime with various archetypes named after chess pieces (Rook, Knight, King etc.)so I can immediately identify them, but they will initially be meaningless to my opponents. And sent a number of terrible out of date ships back to my Homeworld to be scrapped, but yet... The real news was I had discovered an alien colony, and it was standing in my way.
Currently I'm up to turn 50.
Last edited by Heliocentric; 13-10-2011 at 09:50 PM.
Turn 41-50: Two clear theatres of operation are apparent the "war at the gate" a world on what would see an opening up on my currently narrow network of roads and "homeland defence" first I'll talk on the latter.
Homeland Defence
Built a ring of light satellites on my Homeworld, cheap, next to no upkeep and pack enough punch to turn a close battle. Indeed, the biggest deal about satellites is that they don't count towards the population of the battle. Even a light satellite packs 8 small mounts and 2 missiles, pretty bad ass and fully capable of shooting down a good number of missiles from an opponent who would hold their distance from the sats.
Medium satellites require cruiser construction and a size 3 planet to build and totally change the rules of engagement, but those badboys are a long way away.
But even this smaller variant will make a difference if asteroids rained on my planet or an enemy Bio-warfare ship shows up.
Thing is light satellites are often utterly useless in some combat situations, one of them occurs now.
The Herald is a greater menace, skip to the next paragraph if you are sensitive to spoilers.
Essentially this guy has some impressive fire-power, but his real trick is he causes rebellions with propaganda, fail to kill it (a feat I lacked the means to perform) then the world will suffer -50 happiness, if that happened along side a few lost battles or the empire being in debt outright rebellion could occur and that planet would become independent, my Homeworld and only source of profit telling me to piss of would be bad news. He feared my fleet enough to back off during his visit so at least he didn't fire-bomb my Homeworld. As luck would have it my people were really happy before the encounter so the peace was kept and he is unlikely to come back, at least without visiting the other players first.
I also had a few skirmishes with various other players scouts, nothing personal but I did my best to kill them and was victorious each time...
once 10 of mine vs 1 oppenent
and the other my opponent didn't take the safety off his mass drivers while I shouted at him "you are holding fire, press the red button at the top" in steam chat.
So hardly great victories for the history books.
War at The Gate
Attachment 247
Its a small map but its all I know, if the Liir player here was well dug in I knew I was going to be crippled, thankfully Liir players are more ones for late game toys like shields and bio-warfare (I keep writing bioware) and this seemed to only be a outer rim colony.
Regardless collecting together a cluster of TaCokS ships into a wolf pack I plowed into the planet fearing the worst. Then one turn out from the planet the unthinkable happens.
I receive a ceasefire agreement, but because I wasn't sure which player I was visiting or why such a request was sent i hesitated before going on to click accept. My warfleet hovering over this pivotal world I made an observation, the planet wasn't just defenceless, it was perfect.
It was large, perfectly placed for refuelling operations of outbound fleets or repairs on fleeing from sorties. It was practically the same hazard as my Homeworld it could be mine next turn, I queued up a handful of colony ships and ordered them to the new world... But first I had to deal with the Liir squatters AKA "Dolphin Boy's Holiday retreat for Orphans". I'd like to spin a tale of tactical prestige and master strategy but I sent my line of warships to stand next to the planet to nuke it from orbit and on the way I incidentally wiped out all resistance. "The Gate" was already the jewel of my empire will be the front line of my future efforts but then I receive an unexpected message.
Project Icarus is completed, literally 54 turns before it was 'due' (and 30 before I expected it), I Hurry to the ship design screen to integrate my new invention, but I must make efforts to keep its nature secret as long as possible.
Last edited by Heliocentric; 29-09-2011 at 02:14 PM.
So, the gate is clear, a long time has passed in the real world but nothing in SotS, I don't have much in the way of news but something does need highlighting.
God damn are the menaces hotting up.
The 5 players speak openly about bad things attacking their people and I am one of them, the galaxy has started to push back, Ancient evils, out of control self replicating machines and physics all rain death down on the players planets.
But the worse evil i face is "Filthy Lucre", money. I've spent too much too often on things I don't need, only my early completion of Icarus allows me to henge back production and allow money to accumulate, and boy am I glad I did.
Garry's mod aka Garry Newman, aka Von Neumann arrived at my Homeworld with their remover tools, they gobbled up 5 ships but the Von Neumann Mother ship decided to cut its loses when the planet missiles started reaching it and ran away.
That's great, but its not to be taken lightly, Von Neumann is a plague of an enemy that gets more powerful and more aggressive the more if feeds, in all likliness the Von Neumann have a cloaked Homeworld in our galaxy and non of us are equipped to kill it, indeed it might even take players cooperating to shut it down, and if we don't the winner might just be the player who was last to get devoured by the Von Neumann.
Road Block
But that's a problem for a much later time, I just discovered that one of the two roads that reach 'Dolphin Boy's Holiday retreat for Orphans' leads right to one of Dolphin boys other worlds my exploration fleet was massacred, but not without me secreting 1 ship in an asteroid belt during the battle, the rest fought on to draw away attention from my designated survivalist. After the battle I see a ghastly truth, that was a Homeworld, perfect Hazard for my enemy, massive population just as you'd expect and a few other aspects are released by the report by the ship hiding asside the rock which it wouldn't be fair to distribute, but there you are.
Seeing that road as blocked I sent a preliminary fleet down the other road, what's next?
Turns 55-61
Gentlemen please
Me: Settle down in the front... Officer remove that man... Please will the room come to order?
*muted disagreement across the press conference fades out slowly and a journalist is singled out to ask a question*
Journalist 1: How do you respond to allegations that you left your post to a homicidal AI-
Me cutting in: I hardly think that TaCoKS is homicidal except when it comes to public finance.
*I pause expecting laughter, instead silence*
Journalist 2: Are you stating you have no knowledge of any wrongdoing by TaCoKS?
*straight out of cryogenic suspension required by gene-therapy to extend my lifespan I pause for thought, an panicked aid fast walks to my side and explains the situation in only a handful of words, my eyes go wide on pan system television*
Me: 500 Million? I.... No, there must be.... Jesus.
*The mood in the room softens and hushes anew, as if to allow me a moment to digest what happened*
Me: How? *Projected across the room*
Journalist 2: They were evicted in small life pods and shuttles, those who turned back were fired upon by planetary defences, a handful... Less than 2 million were ferried to other colonies, the rest suffocated, starved or died of thirst in their shuttles and pods.
Journalist 3: What about the Asimov rules? Why was the AI able to do this.
*looking up with reddened but dry eyes*
Me: Its looking at the bigger picture, its killing a few to save the rest... This is the price we pay for running economic simulations on a military computer.
Journalist 2: What does that have to do w-
Me: Those who starve to death, die of inebriation or overdose or commit suicide, TaCoKS is running them through a strategic causality database, its trying to save lives by adjusting for population density reflections.... Its just maths to TaCoKS. This conversation is over, I need to talk to my advisers.
*leaving the room* Me: What else do I need to know?
Last edited by Heliocentric; 16-10-2011 at 11:46 PM.
Turn 66 - For your eyes only
Hi, I know this is public but it'd be great if Sorbicol aka The Liir player aka Dolphin Boy could skip to the next post and not read this one, cheers. To assist him skipping the following will appear in wall of text format, apologies to people with bad eyes. So hi there everyone that is not Sorbicol. We have a situation, 2 turns out the largest fleet I've seen will arrive at "the gate", apparently Dolphin Boy has come to enact the squatters rights law by force. But my newest super weapon is only 8 turns away. If I get into a straight fight its going to get ugly so I need to to rely some specific technology. Even if the fleet baring down on me is made out of rust buckets its numerous enough to cause a real problem and if its made out of high end warships I might even get boxed in if I lose control of the world "the gate". Just between you and me? I have some technology orbiting "the gate" that means his fleet wont hurt me and I'll cause him massive damage, but don't tell him okay? the last thing I want is for him to run away from this fight. If this all goes to plan its going to be a massive influence on the local dynamic and the bloody nose I deal Sorb will put him on the defensive allowing me room to grow, after all there are 3 other rivals aside from Sorb and I intend to make myself known to all of them. So, Icarus in 8 turns. Oh, and hi sorb *evil laugh*
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Better not tell you about the other 3 even bigger fleets on their way then had I?
Art of Cooking
Strategy, tactics and correct seasoning
I was just leafing through Sun Tzu's "Art of Cooking" looking for a badass feudal Japanese chilli con carne recipe, but because the book precedes the invention of the contents page as I skim read I found myself reading words to the effect of "you must spread the blended fruit on the cheesecake when and where it is at its softest" and I realised what I had just read applied to my current SotS situation.
I've been tech rushing but not really, see humans node travel will funnel them and might trap them. Any other race might start the game with 20 planets in the range of an extended range ship or 50 in range of a fuel tanker, but for example I started with only 1 road and 2 side dead ends, 7 planets later I was at the gate. So really, I wasn't technology rushing I just lacked other uses for my money.
I might go back to those barely habitable planets one day if I get some serious genetic engineering technology but for now they are merely stepping stones.
So while I might have the most of all the players invested in science at this point, my military is seriously lacking. Sorbicol's Dolphin safe tuna fleet would rock my world... Had it not already been rocked by slavers. Every last man woman and child was killed or captured, the smallest mercy I could manage was to destroy the slave disks before worse things happened to them off world.
So Sorbicol is baring down on me and I have nothing worth defending. Three options present themselves, fight or flight and just as Sun Tzu suggests in his teriyaki serving suggestions "flank in the face".
My fleet looks fine from the fleet screen but closer inspection shows that of the 37 ships at the gate 22 are utility non combat vessels and the remaining 15 have only 3 without damage. It would be a very. Short fight against his invasion fleet, that's without assuming he has some kind of super weapon.
I could drop back get repairs, scuttle my out moded ships and reinforce my fleet. But many of these ships are 3 or 4 pieces of ship related research out of date and costing upkeep every turn. Additionally backing up just raises the odds I will get boxed in.
Flank in the face (c) by Sun Tzu.
Okay, here is where I point out what the "specific technology" I hinted at in the last post was. Node drive. Ships with node travel (zuul and human) can intercept ships with node travel ships, without (everyone else) can intercept ships without. Technically ships with node travel can slow boat to fleets without node travel but it's not practical.
Sorbicol's dolphins are part of everyone else and as such they "can't touch this". Flank in the face involves fleeing the majority of the support craft and attacking the world the Liir fleet came from aka where "you must spread the blended fruit on the cheesecake" with the rest, unless it's defenceless this would be futile but there is a plan B called "stop... hammer time" where a portion of the fleet will run away from the fight and explore the node network past this Liir colony of sorbs.
In the turns it takes Sorbicol's fleet to painfully crawl the last few light years (or whatever the arbitrary distance unit is) I can reach his planet, lose the battle and then diffuse the support craft that survived the fight down the new node paths.
The Man-Tuna-rian Candidate
He arrives at the gate, I only have 1 ship on 'the gate' just a sacrificial lamb to get the measure of his fleet, battle doesn't happen, did he hit peaceful resolution or did my attack on his planet at the same turn take priority or something?
I leave the sacrifice there another turn... Nothing, he left and he is moving closer to me. I can't do anything more yet.
Icarus Rising
When Sorbicol's fleet arrived at the gate Icarus was 6 turns away. Soon I will be ready to waylay the fishy invaders.
All of this happened between turn 63 and 66.
The chilli was awesome.
Last edited by Heliocentric; 25-10-2011 at 11:41 PM.
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For anybody following this: you might be interested in my side of the story. It's not as interesting or as informative as Helio's (he knows a lot more about the game than I do), but it's there if you're interested.
But his isn't written like fan fic on a mobile phone with really bossy autocorrect... I'll fix the above post once I get on a hard line. Not the fanficness,that can't be fixed, just the autocorrecting.
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This write up would be a lot more informative if I knew what the hell Helio was going on about! I never hit his ship at the gate as the game never gave me the option to do so - something went wrong. Great for Helio maybe, but for me (I am new to this game) it was confusing. I figured it had something to do with the vaunted "Node" drive these strange bipedal apes keeping "aping" about, but then again maybe not.
As for Project Icarus..... What could it be? My fleet is hell bent on revenge for those the sushi eaters took from my peacefully settle planet. The apes said they came in peace, waving their funny little white flags (and offering some very strange ideas about hoops and leaping after something called a "basketball"), but then they struck before anything could be done. Some things can never, ever be forgiven................
HA! I figured out how to video the battles, more as this develops.
More words are inbound but here is some HD footage of my exploits.
We want more videos.
The Tuna grill
Attachment 357
I am helpful. In this match I have been[guiding/shouting/harassing](delete as appropriate) the whole match, when my enemy leaves his safety on, i tell him,when an enemy stands still while i pelt him with missiles i help. Even this write up is barefaced help, nothing told here will surprise my opponents when seen in the field. Sometimes I am too helpful.
Too helpful
The trip to my planet would take 5 turns, while i knew the Sorbicol's Liir invasion fleet could turn back (a skill humans lack) them being just below half way was as good of a time as any to deploy my colonisers on the planet me enemy just left 'the gate'(so named in an earlier session because of it being a critical choke point in my node pathways). I don't know if it was that, or if it was the prompt i gave Sorbicol to "check his scanners" but Sorbicol turned back, the planet he was initially charging at had an asteroid monitor friendly to me and it seemed cheap of me to allow Sorbs lack of strategic paranoia to cause him harm when the game was clearly making the monitors
existence known to him since he had bumped into the then neutral monitor in the early scouting period of the game.
So just less than half way on his 5 turn trek to the monitor he turned back to the gate, leaving my warfleet at the monitor and returning to my defenceless new founded colony. Of course, as a human I am the caffeine fueled rocket jockey of the galaxy and the trip that would take Sorb 5 turns takes me just one turn, we will battle yet.
Cook using the right implements
You start SotS with 3 guns. Red laser, gauss rifle and missile.
Weaponcons cons pros Red Laser Weak, short-range, can be reflected Can shoot missiles, can target turrets Missile Weakest DPS, can be shot down, requires medium slot or larger Perfectly accurate, massive range, research upgrades augment performance on older ships Gauss Cannon Weak, bounces off armour, short-range Er? nope
I mention this because as my cruiser Fleet arrives at 'the gate' with only red lasers and un-augmented missiles and my opponent (since he allowed me to show a battle i may as well mention) has UV Lasers that have 10 damage per second. I packed a missile heavy fleet hoping to be evasive tactically.
Cruisers are big ol' boys but i know i'm in for a rough ride with such pathetic firepower, but i have one thing in my favour a cruiser Strikeforce Command ship, yes I should have spent that research on a big gun like mass drivers or something but I was not expecting AI to lock me into a research earlier on, and it seemed a waste to not finish what it had started.
With my Strikeforce CnC i have 36 command points, 6 are taken up by the command cruiser itself leaving enough for 5 more cruisers or 15 destroyers to be fielded simultaneously, I'm planning on winning this fight with raw missile firepower and kill them without them even getting to lay a fist on me, a human hammer-head, armour cruiser is brimming with medium slots what could go wrong?
If he had pressed on to the monitor planet my monitor would have helped and my secret weapon Icarus was scheduled to intercept him and all would have been different.
The Barbeque
Okay boys and girls, who can point out the specific moment when my entire plan turned to a joke?
Moving in close with missiles
Relying on visibility for missiles and him denying it with asteroids
Fighting a Point defence heavy enemy with missiles
Fighting over node markers that blind me but he cant even see?
Letting my (thank god with a spare) command ship get killed
Yes, I won that game simply because i can to the BBQ with more meat, yes Sorb "sneaking" a command ship into my reinforcement fleet's face was fortuitous but really, the battle cost me dearly. Losses 5 cruisers to 8 destroyers (a bad turnout for me).
The second round was much less costly for me, losing no ships and killing 7 I had learned some of my lessons and losing some of his mainline ships, command and point defence cost him dearly, sadly due to HDD issues I didn't manage to record that but by the third and final round I had deleted a few things and had space. It should be noted that during this second round he actually did more damage than I did, it's just the cruisers were thicker steaks and you shouldnt eat the meat if its red in the middle.
The Barbeque 2 - Coals are hot, do not touch
Notice at 40 and 1:12 seconds all of my missiles commit seppuku when their target falls into the shadow of the asteroid. At 2:06, 2:38, 3:11 I targeted a reinforcement because all of the close combatants were asteroid shadowed, I need to stop fighting near asteroids.
Losing 4 destroyers to the 12 is as clear indication as any of the raw power of command and control. Him being down to 11 warships and a tanker but lacking any sort of CnC meant he was limited to 6 destroyers at a time, I still had my remaining Cruiser CnC ship and was able to field triple the meat he could. Still, AGAIN Sorbicol punched above his weight in terms of damage and I only marginally out damaged him in even that third round, UV lasers really are badass.
Just as his last ship died "Icarus" arrived, the bad timing was frustrating but at least it's still going to be a surprise.
Kamikaze scout fleet
I pushed an out of date fleet and some tankers past Sorb's colony to get a better look at the galaxy, its going well.
Attachment 359
My God space is fierce! My little corner of the galaxy has seen me only fighting on one front but it seems clear that a good number of other players are up in each others grill. I meet a few players for the first time which opens up the potential future for politics, I spot a very suitable ally (hazard rating reasons) and some space bees.
The Space Bees aka the swarm are bad news, they move from planet to planet hoovering up resources and fighting you, but they are not really my problem so far away, but its a reminder that even if no other player is paying me any mind i might still need to shore up my back line defences.
Attachment 358
The galaxy can wait
Trapped in my little box by Sorbicol he is probably going to treat me with the care a cornered rat deserves and try and squash me, but finally I have Icarus, the gate is under my control and I can afford to push my entire economy into this endeavour, can he say the same? Because you don't corner a rat and expect to get off lightly.
Edit: I hope the RPS peeps don't mind that i am continuing to post this here despite trying out posting it on a word press blog thingy since this post.
Last edited by Heliocentric; 12-11-2011 at 03:02 AM.I am once again writing a blog, vaguely about playing games the wrong way
XCØM2 LØNG WAR CØØP Campaign Long War novices Welcome, now with 100% more laser guns!
In case of forum degradation pull cord.
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Good read, looking forward to more.


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subset: commoncrawl


text:
There is something Tony Abbott needs to stop before the election – and it has nothing to do with boats.
Opinion polling is now the greatest threat to the Opposition Leader.
Abbott has seen close up that the will of the Australian public is no longer confined to being exercised once every three years.
Julia Gillard was thrown overboard by her colleagues for one reason: her deep and unshakeable unpopularity.
Voters got their way before September 14 and now they appear to have someone just as unpopular, according to years of polling, in their sights.
The message from Friday's ReachTel poll for the Seven Network is that the public wants a hard-fought election – and quite possibly to dump Labor from office as punishment for six self-indulgent years – but that outcome does not seem to involve Abbott.
Malcolm Turnbull's advantage over Abbott as preferred Liberal leader is well established but his crushing – almost embarrassing – lead over Kevin Rudd should make Coalition strategists and the Liberal backbench sit up and think.
Since the return of Rudd, the line from backroom Liberals is that a tightening of the polls was inevitable and the Abbott-Rudd match up was always going to be tough.
But at 65:35 (on preferred prime minister), Turnbull's potential landslide lead over Rudd cannot be ignored.
Still, the minute-to-midnight timing in the election cycle and the Liberal Party's need to preserve its main line of attack against Labor's leadership merry-go-round make a change exceedingly unlikely.
The last thing Abbott needs is a threat from behind just as he is being outboxed by his official opponent.
He has appeared rattled this week.
Abbott's insistence that an emissions trading scheme is a ''so-called market in the non-delivery of an invisible substance to no one'' was rightly slammed as a return to the ''politics of climate denial and scepticism'' and a clear message to the rusted on conservative base.
The overreach continued when he implored Rudd to not ''internationalise'' – of all the things – the issue of refugees.
The blunt instrument Abbott used to kill Gillard is not making a dent against Rudd.
Voters appear to recognise this and they want to make election 2013 a fairer fight.


text:
34Z — By Ben Ellison —
May 2004
Mary Johnstone's Motorboat
|How the bold, ambitious MJM 34Z is but one more creation from a father, and mother, of modern sailing.
Back in the early 1970's Mary Johnstone raced 470 class sailboats in the "trapeze" position, often cantilevering herself completely outboard from a masthead wire to keep the jittery, planing 16-footer dry side up. Husband Bob steered, while two of their children raced another 470 and the other two stood by in an outboard in case either team's weight-versus-wind balancing act went awry.
The family that flips boats together stays together? If sailboat people do odd things, the scene above is just one of thousands in this family's illustrious sailing career. Together and alone, the clan has amassed barrels of trophies, not to mention thousands of sea miles, in all sorts of sailboats. Johnstone is the "J" in J Boats. In 1977 Bob—a major marketing career at Quaker Oats already under his belt—and his naval architect brother Rod introduced the J24, an innovative, some said weird, design for racers wanting to go bigger without losing the small boat thrills. The rest, as the saying goes, is history.
Today there are more than 5,000 J24s sailing in fleets around the world, a total of 10,700 J Boats in 32 racing and cruising designs up to 53 feet. The brothers Johnstone still conceptualize/design new models, but a team from the second generation manages the company day to day. Mary's retired from racing, Bob not quite, and over the last decade their time together on the water has been mostly enjoyed aboard a series of classic Dyer 29 inboards (which they fiddled with, as seen in Dyer's DownEast model). In the normal course of things, this couple might now be enjoying an active retirement aboard one of those handsome semicustom power cruisers—think Hinckley, Legacy, Eastbay, etc.—that older Yankee sailors seem to favor.
Nah. Instead, the Johnstones dreamed up their own fairly audacious notion of a fun 34-footer and then created an all-star team to build her in volume and market her. While the couple has already enjoyed gunkholing around Maine on Hull No. 1, Grace, the boat also toured the season's East Coast shows, including an October stop in Annapolis where I tested her. And while the vessel may be known affectionately in the family as Mary Johnstone's Motorboat, marketing guru Bob hopes the simple, symmetrical "mJm" which fits neatly on a cove stripe or boating cap, is destined to become another widely seen J logo.
Like the original J24, the MJM 34Z will not be confused with any existing designs. Look how the bow flare and slightly reversed sheer of a Carolina offshore fishing boat twists into the sort of aft tumblehome that's become a signature of New England lobster yachts. Yet the pilothouse, open as a porch with its straight up-and-down side windows and support post, is pure modern lobster boat, not yacht. Ayuh, with the Strata Glass side curtain rolled up, you could haul pots from the helm, or pick up a mooring, or—like a solo fisherman—step right from the wheel onto a float to tie up. Note that soft- and hardtop express versions—even a sportfish configuration—are available, but all the early buyers have chosen this Down East model.
Next page > Part 2: The Johnstone attention to detail is also obvious in the stainless steel handholds that are in all the right places. > Page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
This article originally appeared in the April 2004 issue of Power & Motoryacht magazine.


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You won't be able to dismiss this by usual means (escape or click button), but you can close it programatically based on user choices or actions.
"I am so happy with my invitations. The quality of the paper is great...weighty and perfectly textured. The design is so elegant. The only thing I would say is that they are smaller than I expected but I was reading that's that is a good thing as it saves on postage! Service was also prompt and a pleasant experience."
"Our invitations arrived recently (sooner than expected) and look absolutely beautiful! The design requests we submitted were perfect and really helped to make our invitations unique."
"My color theme for my wedding it a variation of purples and this invitation was just perfect for it. The quality is also great! Delivery was amazingly fast! I am very satisfied with my finished product and would definitely recommend them to anyone."
"We LOVED these wedding invites from the second we saw them and got tons of positive feedback! I love the subtle color variations in the leaf designs (we used the green option - we were having an outdoor summer wedding) and think the font colors complimented it nicely. The only change we made was to put the phrase "reception to follow"and the "and" between our names into Willa Bold font rather than the script font. We were sent proofs promptly, and the designer listened to our suggestions. Overall, the printing quality was excellent, the invites arrived in a timely manner and just as advertised, and the paper was fantastic. What helped most was that we ordered sample invitations from WPD (8 for free) and they send you a super helpful paper stock sample guide. I would highly recommend doing this, because it shows you exactly what you're going to get! Overall, we were super happy with the invitations!"
"Beautiful design! We love everything about this invitation. It fits our theme of "Backwoods Boy and a Fairy Tale Princess" The best part of this process was the free designer who edited our customization and made it perfect and the great email communication. Two thumbs up!"


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A CHILDMINDER has been praised by Ofsted for 'motivating children to make good progress'.
Accrington childminder Pauline Newsham, previously rated Satisfactory was rated 'good' by the inspectorate.
Ofsted inspector Donna Birch said: "Educational programmes have breadth and depth across the seven areas of learning. Therefore, children are motivated to learn and make good progress."
She added: "The childminder has very good knowledge of safeguarding children, rigorous checks of provision and a clear understanding of the possible indicators of abuse ensure that children are very well protected."
Ms Birch said partnerships with parents were effective and there was a commitment to continuous improvement. She advised the childminder – who cares for 12 children – to focus on teaching independence skills to obtain an 'outstanding' grade.
She added: "The childminder lives with her husband and two adult children, in a house in Accrington. The whole of the ground floor and the rear garden are used for childminding and she attends a toddler group and activities at the local children's centre.
"She works closely with parents from the start to support children's learning.
"Children are happy and settled, which helps them to form very positive relationships and secure attachments with the childminder and her family."
The inspector's report added that there was a warm, welcoming and stimulating environment supporting children's emotional well-being.


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Prize Recipient
Martha-Helene Stapleton
Hi there! I'm finishing up my first year at Caltech, wavering between physics and applied physics as my selected option. My interests lie mainly with condensed matter physics, which I will continue to pursue this summer, while investigating the fringe field regions of narrow channels in 2-D electron systems, in Prof. Jim Eisenstein's lab. I'm currently on the ASCIT Board of Directors as Freshman Director at Large and have also held positions as a member of the Entrepreneur Club Executive committee and Fleming House Frosh Work-Chair. I also participate in the women's glee club, CLASES (Caltech Latino Assoc. of Students in Engineering and Science), NSBE, and Misty Isle Scottish Pipe Band. I have been name a Caltech Presidential Scholar and Mellon Minority Fellow. Thank you so much for this honor as an APS Scholar.


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A9 TV, September 15th, 2012
Violence in any case equates with religion for a bigot. It means it is a requirement of religion. That is why the bigot mindset needs to be eliminated first. And in order for the bigot mindset to be eliminated, sects need to be done away with. People invent their own interpretations in these sects. They invent their own ideas. So the system of the Mahdi is essential. There is no alternative to the system of the Mahdi. The Islamic world will accept no pronouncements from any leader other than the Mahdi (pbuh). People need to be told of the erroneous nature of the references employed by bigots. You cannot free people by going out and burning books.
The Mahdi (pbuh) is the only solution for America, and Israel, and the Islamic world. They are all, the whole Islamic world, being ruined at the moment. They are despised and put down everywhere. They killed that American ambassador, for instance. America responded very coolly. But America will still respond a thousand or a million times more powerfully. It will never leave them alone. What happens, happens to unfortunate Muslims. These things are not reasonable. A Muslim cannot commit cruelty even if no response is forthcoming.
Prayer is obligatory. Allah says in one verse; that the people of hell will be asked "'What caused you to enter Saqar (the scorching heat)?" Do you know what the first thing the people of hell say is? Look, the very first. They say that they did not used to pray. They say that en masse. Is that enough? Yes, it is. Prayer is in all faiths. Praying five times a day has been obligatory since the time of Hazrat Adam (pbuh). It has never changed. The bowing and prostrations are all the same.
(In response to a mail from a viewer saying; "Even those false reactions on the subject of that film show how much the Islamic world stands in need of religious figures such as yourself. It depresses me to see this. Then when I read the verse, 'Allah will perfect His Light, though the unbelievers hate it,' I cheer up again.")
There is nothing to depress one here. Everything is for the best. Bediüzzaman says that there will be Islamic rage before Islamic Unity. These things are omens of that rage. The system of the Mahdi progresses step by step, inch by inch, just as described. But there cannot be the slightest undulation in the progress of the system of the Mahdi. The system of the Mahdi flows because that is its destiny. Nobody can stop it. It moves forward with sure steps. It was predetermined that these people would make that film. The making of that film was created by Allah for the Mahdi to appear. That is its mystical nature. It is Allah Who creates the film. Let Islam reign across the world, He says. Allah encourages Muslims' Islamic zeal. My words are in the nature of embracing natural causes but it will happen anyways, if that is destined. That is destiny.
(In response to a viewer who asks, "Who made that film defaming the Prophet (saas)?")
Shaytan. Shaytan wraps them round his little finger. The man who made it was just an ordinary person. His origins are not Jewish, either. He lived in Israel. He is an Israeli citizen, but he is not a Jew. Now imagine that a man has made a film. He has out it on the market. That film needs to be marketed across the world, doesn't it? Muslims undertake that. They say they will take care of the sales and marketing and advertising. Nobody will watch the film unless it is marketed, so it would have no effect. The film is very vulgar (surely our Prophet (saas) is beyond that). It is truly third rate, barely worthy of the name of film. Really horrible. That guy has described his own life, but they made it world famous by attributing it to the Prophet (saas). My opinion is that everyone has seen it. They have taught them all. The lack of the Mahdi (pbuh) as leader causes whole strings of disasters.
A woman must be like a flower, but chaste and intelligent and radiant. Of course she must be nice and attractive. Flowers and butterflies are nice. Allah has created all things to be pleasant. And women must be nice, too. One verse speaks of blessings and beauties. Allah tells Muslims that those blessings are theirs in this world and ONLY theirs in the Hereafter.If you produce a model of woman as filthy and man as filthy, then nobody will want to be a Muslim, among people who do not know Islam. You depict it as something hellish; no music, no art, no paintings, no beauty, no nothing. Women must be beautiful, but chaste. Nobody must make women uncomfortable. That is the kind of society we need. Women must be pleasant and learned and chaste; people must value and respect them. Such a society will be most excellent. It is foolish to seek a solution by making women hideous.2012-11-20 10:20:44


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You might have thought that David Cameron would be steering clear of foreign policy gaffes after his "news-rich" visit to Turkey and India*.
But he has just been accused by Labour of making a new blunder by mistakenly claiming that Iran has a nuclear weapon (at least, we are still assuming he's wrong) during a PM Direct meeting.
The prime minister was asked why he was backing Turkey to join the EU and said it could help solve the world's problems…."like the Middle East peace process, like the fact that Iran has got a nuclear weapon".
Chris Bryant, shadow Europe minister, said Mr Cameron was becoming a "foreign policy klutz".
"This is less of a hiccup, more of a dangerous habit," he said. "Considering Iran's nuclear ambitions constitute one of the most important foreign policy challenges facing us all, it is not just downright embarrassing that the prime minister has made this basic mistake, it's dangerous."


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A Bank of America executive has responded to a woman who started an online petition to protest the bank's new debit card fee.
Andrew Plepler, who has the long double-barreled title of global corporate social responsibility executive and consumer policy executive at Bank of America, earlier this week called Molly Katchpole, a 22-year-old Bank of America customer, who started the petition on Change.org, a do-it-yourself petitions website.
According to the website, Plepler told Katchpole that the bank understands the people who signed her petition are "very frustrated," that it would be "premature" to say whether the fee might be reversed and that the bank constantly listens to customer feedback.
Plepler is in charge of BofA's philanthropic grants, community development lending and investing goals, Community Reinvestment Act compliance, associate volunteer programs, partnerships with nonprofit organizations, arts and culture programming, and environmental initiative, according to a biography published by American Banker, a banking industry news organization. He is also responsible for interfacing with consumer and community groups and representing the bank's positions on consumer issues.
Katchpole is struggling financially and doesn't want to pay to use her debit card, according to a Change.org statement.
"I can barely afford to make ends meet," Katchpole said in the statement. "Now I'm expected to hand over money to Bank of America each month just for using my own debit card?"
For the record, any money in Katchpole's bank account belongs to her, but the debit card is a bank product, not a personal possession.
The $5 monthly debit card fee is waived for Bank of America customers who have a substantial bank balance or utilize other bank products and services. Other large banks have also introduced monthly debit card fees on a trial basis in some states.
The media campaign to promote Katchpole's petition, which has collected more than 200,000 signatures, is being organized by Change.org.
Follow me on Twitter: @marciegeff


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GREER - More passengers soon will be able to take advantage of the $4 per day economy parking rate at Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport.
Construction is underway now to expand the airport's economy parking lot by adding 450 parking spaces.
Weather permitting the 120 day project is scheduled to be completed by early October 2012.


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CyberPowerPC Gamer Xtreme FTW: Performance at Any Costby Dustin Sklavos on 6/1/2011 1:05 PM EST
32 Comments
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Souka - Wednesday, June 01, 2011 - linkI think AT should do a giveaway for this unit...
If so, first entry post! 8-O Reply
Souka - Wednesday, June 01, 2011 - linkOMG the wattage this thing draws at idle is more than my current setup draws at load.
With this unit under load I'd have to get a AC unit for my computer room (except during winter)...yikes!!!! Reply
cknobman - Wednesday, June 01, 2011 - linkIm in for a giveaway!!!!!!!! Reply
Sardius - Wednesday, June 01, 2011 - link$5k for a PC sounds like so much money to spend on a PC these days.
Then again, my first gaming rig (early 1998) consisted of a 266 MHz Pentium II, 64 MB RAM, nVidia Riva 128 4MB AGP video card, 8GB hard drive. Not to mention the 17" Trinitron monitor, AWE64 sound card and a beefy set of 2.1 Altec Lansing speakers.
Total cost: just south of $4k. The 333 MHz processor was also available and probably would have brought the cost closer to $5k.
Makes me want to go play some (GL) Quake! Reply
Spivonious - Wednesday, June 01, 2011 - linkSimilar to my first machine, although I had a 333MHz Celeron "A", 256MB of RAM, and a 6.4GB hard drive (7200RPM!! ;-) ). It cost around $2k sans monitor. Reply
Souka - Wednesday, June 01, 2011 - linkFrom about 1979 to late-90's a decent home computer setup cost almost $2,000
I saw a nice graph showing "avg. home computer cost" Reply
szimm - Wednesday, June 01, 2011 - linkAnother overpriced Hunk-o-Junk, which will be outdated only slightly later than a system built with well-balanced parts, for a third of the cost. It's a mystery to me why anyone would buy this kind of machine. Either it would be an attempt to future-proof, which is pointless, or just to show off - meaning the size of said persons genitalia must be severely lacking. I direct you to a recent episode of South Park for details on this phenomenon.
Anyway, the pleasure of building computers (for me, at least) has always been to see just how much awesome you could squeeze out of any given budget. I've had just as much fun building net-tops and lowpower PC's for friends and family, as I have building powerful rigs for myself and my gaming buddies.
And seriously? What's with the 6x2 GB RAM in a system like this? The least they could do is make it 3x4 to ease the upgrade path... Reply
Alchemy69 - Wednesday, June 01, 2011 - linkThat five grand amounts to a stupidity tax. Reply
Lazlo Panaflex - Wednesday, June 01, 2011 - linkGood Lawd, that case is absolutely fugly...wth were they thinking? Reply
tpurves - Wednesday, June 01, 2011 - linkMaybe the ugliest computer I have ever seen. Reply
Dustin Sklavos - Wednesday, June 01, 2011 - linkI'll admit I'm not a huge fan of the case's aesthetics, but the thermals are stellar. It gets the job done. Reply
nuker - Wednesday, June 01, 2011 - linkCan we have the noise levels please?
Excellent review! I'm just wondering if it's better to have an Ibuypower's Erebus system rather than a Level10 case, they cost nearty the same with equal hardware specs. Reply
Dustin Sklavos - Wednesday, June 01, 2011 - linkI can try getting an Erebus in for review, but in the meantime I'll also be reviewing the Level 10 GT on its own sometime soon. Reply
IdioticLoginSystem - Wednesday, June 01, 2011 - linkIt's me or it's not SO impressive as it seems?
The Geforce GTX 590 aren't as impressive as the HD 6990 in the benchmarks I've seen. In fact, the 6990 beats the crap out of them in high resolutions with AA activated, due to their higher vRAM size. Plus, 6990 clocks nearly 300 mhz faster, and while Fermi architecture is superior, 300 mhz is, well....a lot of difference.
The SSD is also a bad choice. Intel has never done any SSD comparable to an OCZ Vertex 3 (or an OCZ PCIe-based one, aka VeloDrive). Besides, who the hell needs 2 terabytes of disk space?
I don't know if it's performance-wise or what, but 6x2 GB's modules seems a waste to me. If you want to upgrade (it's "only" 12 gb's of RAM after all), you've to throw away one or more of them.
At least the price seems "correct", but to claim this is the "fastest system ever"...I'm not impressed at all. Reply
szimm - Wednesday, June 01, 2011 - linkI kind of agree with you on the graphics part, but the difference is neglible. The SSD is not a bad choice, though - the Intel 510 is probably the fastest option out there right now, according to benchmarks, and assuming you have an MB that supports 6Gbps. And yes, the RAM configuration is horrendous - a system like this should have absolutely no drawbacks. At that price point, nothing less should be expected. But - there's bound to be a few idiots with enough disposable income. I'm sure CyberPower (hate that name) is betting on it... Reply
Dustin Sklavos - Wednesday, June 01, 2011 - linkThe difference between the 6990 CF and GTX 590 SLI is going to seem at least somewhat academic given the results I had with the GTX 590 SLI config. And personally, I'd make the trade-off: the GTX 590 runs much quieter than the 6990 does. Reply
3DVagabond - Wednesday, June 01, 2011 - linkThis system was built to sell to people with some, but not a lot, of PC knowledge. Thus Intel drives and Geforce graphics. The 6x2 GB RAM just helps to confirm it. It's cheaper and still says "12GB" on the side of the case. Although it's not the way anyone would build a system for themselves. Add to it a case with aesthetics that set it apart, and the thinking that went into the design seems pretty obvious.
I'm not saying it's a bad design from a business POV. Just the opposite. Well thought out on the marketing teams side. Reply
IdioticLoginSystem - Wednesday, June 01, 2011 - linkThe price WOULD BE correct if that config is tagged at "$1,565"
If "As configured $5,017" is the full system with the specs we see, then it's pure and absolute crap. If Sandy Bridge-E gets out before October, I'll be able to build a system that kicks it's ass for 500$-1000$ less. Reply
Spazweasel - Wednesday, June 01, 2011 - linkWith that power draw, consider the possibility that you will need a dedicated circuit to power it. It's drawing as much power as a microwave (9 amps@110v), and microwaves typically get their own circuit. Most home circuit breakers are 20-amp units (again, US voltage), and you don;'t want to exceed 75% of capacity. Add in the power draw of a pair of 30" monitors and a sound system, and you don't have much room left for anything else on that circuit.
Also consider your line conditioning. At that power draw, the run-of-the-mill 700Va home UPS ain't gonna do it. You'll want to protect your $5000 worth of computers and $2000 worth of multiple 30" monitors (you're not getting this to drive a 24" 1920x1200 display, after all), and to do so at that load you're looking at another kilobuck; your UPS will have to be a low-end data center piece instead of a consumer piece.
Is this worth $5000 to you? The better question is, is it worth $8000? If so, go for it. Just consider all the extra expenses, above and beyond the power bill and the computer itself. Reply
meshugge - Wednesday, June 01, 2011 - linkHave to say that I bought a $3K Cyberpower pc last month based on recent reviews here - they sent me a defective machine and have not responded now to three separate emails over the last two weeks requesting support or return information. If that is the service they provide to customers, not quite sure why you are bothering to review their machines. Reply
CyberHD - Friday, June 03, 2011 - linkMeshugge,
To better assist us with getting your concerns addressed; please email email@example.com with your Cyberpower PC customer id number and a direct return contact number. Once we have this; we will make every effort to contact you to your concerns address your concerns.
Cyberpower PC Reply
Browngamer93 - Wednesday, June 01, 2011 - linkDon't know too much about computers, but I wouldn't mind playing this impressive material with Crysis 2. Hope I'm the one to win if they have a giveaway. Reply
wolfman3k5 - Wednesday, June 01, 2011 - linkThis machine looks like it was put together with extreme superficiality, and with an obvious lack of passion. Custom built, boutique computer systems are supposed to be about mods and customizations. Just the cable management is horrendously impractical. If the tech at CyberPowerPC would spend 5 minutes at any Home Depot he could come up with a half way decent cable management solution. When it comes to custom built computer systems, and this price range, everything matters, every little detail. Specs don't matter as much as quality. And I'm addressing this to CyberPower: people don't buy a Ferrari or Lamborghini just for the specs, they also buy them for the status symbol that they get, for the quality and for the level of service. Otherwise everyone could buy a $20000 to $60000 sports car (like a Corvette) and be done with it. I'm not saying that a Corvette is a bad car, I'm just saying that it's not a Ferrari, just like a Alienware will never be a Falcon-NW.
My point is that I will never spend this kind of money on a CyberPowerPC or any kind of half-assed-boutique computer system. For $5000 I can get a Mac Pro, an Apple monitor and have money left over for a Macbook. Or I can get a decent PC built by any number of manufacturers that will turn more heads and perform way better.
Bottom line: put some soul in your computers for Christ Sake do some real custom work on them, otherwise your computer systems are just expensive hunks of junks. Most people can twist cables and install boards these days. Reply
EpsilonZero - Thursday, June 02, 2011 - linkFor $5000 they really should have managed all of those cables.
It looks like they just through the cables in and loosely zip tied them together.
A quality build would have cut and spliced those cables to exact lengths, added sleaves, and changed the plugs to a build enhancing color scheme.
Theres absolutely nothing custom about this build. Everything is stock parts that a customer could very easily purchase from Newegg and as Anand pointed out they could probably save $500 by doing so.
CyberPower you got a long way to go. Reply
ironmb1 - Thursday, June 02, 2011 - linkI love how people on this site cry about how overpriced this rig is, how the hardware is so outdated.. yet they would take it in a heartbeat. All you budget gamers need not apply. Anyways, anyone with this much money willing to spend on a rig with this much hardware... should NEVER EVER buy from CyberpowerPC or Ibuypower. These two companies have HORRIBLE reviews, just go read their forums. There are way better boutique builders than cyberpowerpc, and ibuypower.
I love how my password never works more than once. I'm sick of registering to post comments. Reply
MilwaukeeMike - Thursday, June 02, 2011 - linkAnyone else think it was interesting that every hot new SSD is a 240 GB, yet they put 120's in this monster? If anyone could justify 240's it'd be this, right?
Or maybe there really isn't anyone who thinks a big SSD is worth the $$$. Reply
GullLars - Thursday, June 02, 2011 - linkActually, it wouldn't matter much for performance, given the Marvel controller.
You would get a lot more bang for buck for this rigg if you got a decent RAID card (like LSI 92xx or Areca 1680/1880) and put up 4-8x 64GB or 128GB SSDs in RAID-0. Your PCmark vantage scores would easily hit 30-35K, IOPS would pass 100K, and bandwidth around 1500-2000MB/s. If you got one of the Arecas with 4GB RAM, the read-ahead and intelligent cache would also make a visible dent in loading times and burst speed.
I would go for a decent RAID card with good SSDs over SLI 590 any day. If you're not going ultra details with 3 27/30" monitors you don't need it anyway.
Single 580 or SLI 560/570 sounds better. I'd also get a water block for the GPU(s) and add another 240/480 radiator (depending on 1 or 2 GPUs), outside the case if needed. Reply
GullLars - Thursday, June 02, 2011 - linkThe PCmark Vantage score is way below what you'd expect for a $5K system in Q2 2011.
In 2008, Nizzen scored 24740 (just 700 points below this) on a system costing about the same, which was his main system on it's 24/7 clock. This time last year he was in the mid 30K's with a build refresh with 980x also at 24/7 clock.
I suspect the reason for the underperforming score is the Marvel RAID controller used on the motherboard for the SSD RAID, and intel 510 SSDs being used.
I would love to see full PCMark Vantage HDD suite scores to confirm or rule out this.
RAM clock also seems bad, unless running really tight timings. Reply
Gonemad - Friday, June 03, 2011 - link...for a i7-2600K, (changing all compatible parts accordingly) drop the 590s (quad-core, right?) and try something close to 3-slot SLI /CF models/setup, with unencumbered multipliers on the graphics cards and on the CPU, add more water cooling, drop more fans, and see what happens to bang-for-buck and idling power. Most oldish games still enjoy poor coding and like faster cores instead of MORE cores, like SC2.
And really, for that dosh all the cabling should be custom-fit. Reply
7Enigma - Monday, June 13, 2011 - linkWhat the heck does this mean:
"Now admittedly I was running the Gamer Xtreme FTW with the sliding glass door open when the outside weather was less than 60F, but we can probably all agree these are excellent thermals, especially when you take into account the reason why I tested this tower with that door open."
So you tested with the sliding glass open because your ambient temp was cool. How does that have any resemblance to normal operating conditions? All the dust, increased noise, not to mention very likely giving a VERY rosy picture to the thermals. It doesn't matter if the problem is the Thermaltake Level 10 GT as you allude to without giving specifics, Cyberpower CHOSE this case for this build. If they made the wrong case choice, that IS on them.
Dustin, I normally like your reviews and writing style, but this one smacks of bias or poor decision making. Reply
Grandpa - Wednesday, June 22, 2011 - linkMy last pc purchase was a boutique machine of $5000. Rated tops and "quiet" to boot. Be careful what you buy. Their idea of "quiet" was 8 fans running as fast as they could run (screem) and a water pump placed in the front of the case for more added noise. I ended up re-piping the fluid, moving the pump, replacing the noisey fans, eliminating 4 of the fans, removing the overclock, and enabling the Q fan control. I now have a very decent machine. But, I wasted that $1000 you mention. A lesson learned... Reply
Grandpa - Wednesday, June 22, 2011 - linkI noticed in the picture a case full of holes. How good can that be for noise control? I've never seen a hole that didn't allow noise to pass through.
.....sorry, I hate computer noise. Reply


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Brazil continues to lead Nigeria 3-1 at halftime in Athens, Ga. Both teams have had good scoring chances thus far, but the Brazilians have been more efficient.
Nigeria has had the ball in the Brazilian end for a good portion of the match. However, the Brazilians are attacking on both sides and through the middle, and the Nigerian ...
Location: RFK Stadium. Kickoff (ET): 7:30 p.m. Television: Home Team Sports; KYFC-TV Kansas City. Satellite: Spacenet 3, Tr. 23; Galaxy 9, Tr. 2.
Series History: June xx at Arrowhead Stadium -- Richie Williams was ejected for a handball in the box early in the match, and undermanned D.C. ...
July 31 in Foxboro, Mass.
New England 2 San Jose 0. Goals: Moore (Naveda) 48, Moore (Naveda, DeBrito) 67.
New England -- St. Andre, Fraser, Okaroh, Lalas, Wylie, Woodring, Sawatzky, DeBrito, Naveda, Moore, Keegan. Subs: Baba for Woodring in 68th minute, Tardieu for Keegan in 87th.
San Jose -- Salzwedel, Dayak, Martin, Ianni, Draguicevich, Emenalo, Baicher, ...
Here are the lineups for the Brazil-Nigeria men's semifinal match at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Ga.
Brazil -- Dida, Ze Maria, Aldair, Ronaldo Guira, Roberto Carlos, Flavio Conceicao, Amaral, Juninho, Ze Elias, Bebeto, Ronaldinho.
Nigeria -- Dosu, C. Babayaro, Ukechukwu, West, Obaraku, Babangida, Lawal, Okocha, Amunike, Kanu, Amokachi.
By Mike Woitalla
By Dean Caparaz
By Scott ...
Nwankwu Kanu scored in the third minute of overtime to give Nigeria a stunning 4-3 come-from-behind upset of Brazil in their semifinal match in Athens, Ga.
Nigeria's Uche Ukechukwu hit a pass that bounced off of a Nigerian teammate's back and landed near Kanu at the top of the box. He made a nifty move to avoid Aldair, ...
Bebeto gave Brazil a 2-1 lead with a goal in the 26th minute.
Ronaldinho beat Nigerian defender West down the right wing, and took a hard, low shot from an angle about 12 yards out. Dosu got a hand on it, but Bebeto pounced on the ball as it rolled across the goalmouth, and put it into the ...
Flavio Conceicao scored on a free kick in the 2nd minute to give Brazil a 1-0 lead over Nigeria.
Bebeto was fouled outside the box by Amunike of Nigeria. On the free kick, Flavio Conceicao hit a low liner through a spot in the wall that a Brazilian player had vacated. The shot appeared to deflect off of ...
Nigeria equalized in the 20th minute, when C. Celestine Babayaro, attacking from his defender's position, took the ball down the left side of the box and hit a shot from a very sharp angle. The Brazilian keeper, Dida, was only able to get a hand on the ball, and Roberto Carlos, in an effort to clear it over the ...
Brazil now leads 3-1 after Flavio Conceicao scored in the 37th minute.
Roberto Carlos lofted a high cross into the penalty area that Juninho chested down for Flavio to run onto. Dosu, the Nigerian keeper came out to meet Flavio at the penalty spot, and the Brazilian knocked the ball over Dosu's head and into the goal.
Victor Ikpeba scored in the 77th minute to pull Nigeria within 3-2.
Daniel Amokachi passed the ball on the ground laterally along the penalty-area line, and Ikpeba blasted a shot into the lower right corner. The Brazilian keeper had no chance.
Jay Jay Okocha missed a penalty kick in the 62nd minute, and Brazil continues to lead Nigeria 3-1.
Nigeria's Daniel Amokachi was fouled inside the area by Flavio Conceicao. Okocha's spot kick was a weak one, directed slightly to the goalie's left. It was not a difficult save for Dida, who had guessed correctly.
July 31 in Athens, Ga.
Nigeria 4 Brazil 3. Goals: own goal 20, Ikpeba 77, Kanu 90, 94; Flavio Conceicao 2, Bebeto 27, Flavio Conceicao 37.
Nigeria -- Dosu, C. Babayaro, Ukechukwu, West, Obaraku (Oruma, 83), Babangida (Fatusi, 68), Lawal, Okocha, Amunike (Ikpeba, 46), Kanu, Amokachi.
Brazil -- Dida, Ze Maria, Aldair, Ronaldo Guira, Roberto Carlos, ...
Nigeria's Nwankwo Kanu tied the game 3-3 in the 90th minute, and the two teams are headed into sudden-death overtime in search of the "golden" goal.
Daniel Amokachi misplayed a cross to him on the right wing, but he recovered possession of the ball and won a throw-in when Rivaldo cleared the ball away. Jay Jay Okocha's throw-in ...
GK: Antonio (Tony) Meola Comments: Played for the U.S.A. in two consecutive World Cups and became the first American goalkeeper recognized throughout the soccer world and public. Field Players:
Comments: Played for the U.S.A. in two consecutive World Cups and became the first American goalkeeper recognized throughout the soccer world and public. Field Players:
Comments: Great soccer ambassador
Comments: Elevated women's soccer internationally. A true goal scorer!
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There is only one change to the Barnet side for their clash against Cheltenham Town as Edgar Davids returns to the starting XI.
The Dutchman missed the 2-2 at home to Oxford United due to suspension but is back in the team in place of Jon Nurse who drops to the bench.
New loan signings George Barker and Andy Iro are both named on the Bees substitutes bench.
Former Barnet midfielder Sam Deering, who left the club in the summer, is named among the Cheltenham substitutes.
Barnet: Stack; Fuller, Pearce, Stephens, Brown; Kamdjo, Davids, Byrne; Yiadom, Holmes, Hyde.
Barnet substitutes: Lee, Nurse, Edgar, Cowler, Weston, Barker, Iro.
Cheltenham Town: Brown; Lowe, Bennett, Elliot, Jones; Taylor, Pack, Carter, McGlashan, Zebroski, Harrard.
Cheltenham Town substitutes: Deering, Duffy, Goulding, Roberts, Penn, Andrew, Graham.


text:
Roksanda Spring 2013
The litmus test for the 1960s-tinged graphic-modern vibe that's slowly percolating in next spring's collections in both New York and London isn't going to be its predominance on yet more runways in Milan or Paris. It is, of course, whether or not women will decide to take on board what it represents—a general sense of cleaning up the look—less fuss, flounce, and fancy prints; more long, lean, and linear sharpness. Obviously it's too early to call the result, but there is already one convert in the elegant form of designer Roksanda Ilincic. Her own collection, shown in the near saccharine but not quite sweetness of The Savoy Hotel's jasper-blue ballroom, was driven by the desire to keep things looking striking and (relatively) simple. She did, after all, look to both avowed modernist painter Josef Albers and the exuberbant and corpulent sensuality of Niki de Saint Phalle for this collection. So, out came . . . short streamlined shift dresses colored by the swirling curvilinear geometry created out of white, orange, black, mauve, and cobalt blue; a gray marled cotton tee with a tiered floor-sweeping sunshine-yellow skirt in a glossy laminated silk, denuding it of romanticism and making it run along at a fast urban clip; and, yet more of that humble-looking gray cotton, turned into a draped cocktail dress that finished below the knee, a golden satin ribbon belt adding a flash of athletic color at the waist.
Afterward, Ilincic appeared from backstage and answered a few questions. No, said the always impeccably turned-out designer, laughing, those good cotton jersey pieces weren't her idea of what to wear to work out in. "We had something similar for autumn, and the reaction was incredible," Ilincic said. "I wanted to take what are traditionally seen as evening shapes, and make them in something you can wear all the time." Clearly this is Ilincic's trump card in London, where it's a boys' town, and there are very few women of her age in the game of making grown-up, sophisticated clothes that are imbued with a sense of international appeal. She makes what she wants to wear, and what she will look good in, and that's great, because quite a few women would be more than happy to have in their closet whatever she's having. (At a party for the new British Fashion Council chair Natalie Massenet, you could easily spot the women who were Roksanda-ites in the room.) However, that brings us to the drawback of having yourself in the frame. Some of Ilincic's color choices, like the ultra-orange and shocking blue, which on her would—and do—look wonderful, could present a challenge to others not blessed with her delicate porcelain complexion. A few more looks of the likes of the sole exquisite dusky-pink tweedy fitted dress would have been a welcome addition.


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They spent big bucks to sign Al Jefferson and drafted Cody Zeller really high. Who knows?
Dear P_George,
You have received an infraction at Pacers Digest.
Reason: Unacceptable Comment and/or Content
Asik wouldn't fit with us as he only wants to be on a team that he can start on.
That being said, I would HATE to see Miami get him, that would be a horrible scenario for the Pacers. Luckily, they do not have the pieces to pull off a trade in my opinion.
I would also like to exclude every player on the above list that doesn't have post-season experience
Being unable to close out a game in which you have a comfortable lead in the 4th Q = Pulling a Frank Vogel
We probably need to define what is meant by rim protector. When I use I mean it in the same since as Roy. A straight up, verticality type of rim protector, which is what our defense is designed for. A weak side shot blocker isn't the same thing. He isn't being a rim protector in the same way Roy and Ian are, and thus may not actually be a better rim protector for our system.
I don't know enough about how the Bobcats defensive system works, or how Biyombo gets his blocks. If it is more as a weakside shot blocker there is no guarantee that he will actually be a better rim protector than Ian. Rebounds I don't really care about as long as the team gets it. Even Orlando seems to get a lot of rebounds, and I think it is by design that our wing players get as many rebounds as they do. Unless the player is an offensive rebounding machine, that is a different story.
If they trade Bosh they might.
I don't want Reggie Evans,, early in his career I remember something to do w character issues. I like what he brings on the court for cheap. But no way do we bring in guys with character issues unless its Tony Allen type player for the right price.
Re Dalembert. He just lost his starting spot to DeJuan Blair. Earlier in the season, he was benched a game for missing shootaround, but this time it looks like it's permanent. I'm sure he's more talented than Mahinmi, but he's just not a guy I would want on this team.
Mahinmi isn't playing well, but the point is our defense doesn't suffer much when he comes in for Roy. As long as he fills this role, I think we're fine.
Long term of course we'd want a young project guy to eventually take over for him (I guess Miles was supposed to be that guy). But going after some other team's high profile young guy like Biyombo is probably not realistic.
NBA Free Agent list:
If anyone has a better list of ALL available free agents please provide.
Joel Przybilla believes he can be effective next season.
Przybilla played a grand total of 68 minutes this season and it's no guarantee there will even be a market for him in the offseason. Apr 28 - 1:24 PM
Suns waived C Brad Miller.
Miller is expected to retire and the move was expected since he was initially acquired. Wed, Aug 15, 2012 12:19:00 PM
Kyrylo Fesenko will reportedly work out for the Hawks on Tuesday.
Fesenko was waived by the Bulls in training camp, but he wouldn't provide much to Atlanta. If signed, he'll merely be an insurance policy, and not a particularly appealing one at that. Tue, Oct 30, 2012 08:30:00 AM
You consider Biyombo to be a high profile young guy? I normally think of a guy drafted highly whom there's a consensus of his high, high upside when that terms is thrown around. He was drafted as a major project. He's still raw, but defensively and rebounding wise, he's good.
Those are last years' highlights. You can see him getting weakside blocks but, also going up chest to chest and making some nice blocks. He has improved in terms of Rebs, Fouls Against, and Turnovers each of the last three seasons. He'd also be a great player for Hibbert to mentor and help out.
Who knows if the Bobcats are going to give up on him or not, but we could probably make it worth their while but, we may have to move a young guy like OJ or Hill(which I'm not too sad about but, I know some would be).
Dear P_George,
You have received an infraction at Pacers Digest.
Reason: Unacceptable Comment and/or Content
Like I said before just because a guy is 7 feet tall that doesn't mean he is a center(see Bargnani,Dirk, etc), I don't know what this "defensive system" you guys are talking about is coming from either, I mean you think Frank is saying "screw this defensive system" when he plays West/Scola together? I have seen Scola or West replace Ian just fine and in fact that has been better than playing the 7 feet tall guy.
Give me Reggie Evans over Ian any day, he is the better defender and rebounder and Evans protects the rim doing different things he doesn't have to jump 10 feet high in the air to protect the rim(like Dandre Jordan).
@WhatTheFFacts: Studies show that sarcasm enhances the ability of the human mind to solve complex problems!
I would be one of the guys that really likes Evans, as well as Biyombo. Wouldn't have the shot blocking, but he's a strong guy who won't get bullied in the post and is the best rebounder in the league. He also has that badass factor that fits in well with our defensive scheme.
Dear P_George,
You have received an infraction at Pacers Digest.
Reason: Unacceptable Comment and/or Content
Lets also not forget that Vogel tried to replace Ian (or some of his minutes) by trying to play Scola/Cope together throwing all this "defensive system" thing out of the window, that pair works as he thought it was going to work and Ian is riding the bench.
@WhatTheFFacts: Studies show that sarcasm enhances the ability of the human mind to solve complex problems!
I get the interest in Evans. Lets ask one question.
Why would Brooklyn trade him to us. If someone has got a reasonable response to that the floor is yuours.
Biymombo the Pacers were interested in back in the draft. I doubt Jordan gives him up.
Current depth chart for all 32 teams:
Lets also not forget when Ian was off the court vs Philly I believe it was how the lane became the red sea. Coach Vogel quickly reinserted Mahinmi back into the lineup the next game. Coach Vogel was giving Ians minutes to Copeland. The Luis Copeland frontcourt was a failure.
* Reference is after the Bulls game where Cope lit it up. This was more of a tweak than Coach Vogel "throwing his D system" out the window imo versus an opponent who only had 9 healthy players at that time.
Last edited by PacersPride; 12-11-2013 at 05:37 PM.
I don't know how we could get him.....but I can live with Aaron Gray as a backup Center behind Hibbert and Mahinmi. He's an Expiring contract at $2.7 mil. He's a solid Low Post defender...but not as mobile as I'd hope he'd be.
Ash from Army of Darkness: Good...Bad...I'm the guy with the gun.
And no matter what Vogel has tried, the default backup always seems to be Ian. I like the West and Scola matchup, only if Paul is keeping pentrators out of the lane. And if a team has multiple drivers (Heat, Pistons, Bucks, Thunder, etc) on the court then we have to protect the paint. That is the system. CHannel the hard to guard drivers to the walls. Not the baseline. But to the walls. And Ian is a wall. With stone hands.
Now I would like to see Scola/West when only a Wade is out there. I think Lance can keep him out of the lane. And I predict that happening more if Ian struggles. But this isn't an easy fix.
This whole discussion just tells me that we have little options when it comes to replacing Mahinmi.
Mahinmi isn't great by any means.....but he does a good enough job ( most..but not ALL of the time ) of doing what he's supposed to be doing; defending the low Post, rebounding, doing his best impression of Hibbert ( PURELY from a Defensive perspective ) when he rests and vertically challenging Players that attack the rim.
This whole thread boils down to a "the grass is always greener" type of discussion. As cdash has mentioned, despite many of you having a "wishlist" for a Mahinmi replacement......the question becomes......how do you think that such a Player can be acquired?
Given the list of Players that has been discussed....I've come to the conclusion that there isn't many options.
Ash from Army of Darkness: Good...Bad...I'm the guy with the gun.
There is no doubt we will see Scola/DWest combo but it will be only in the playoffs. That combination is lethal,, as long as DWest can guard the center. Glad to see Coach Vogel did not have to unveil it last nite.
Part of the reason imo a third big is needed is exactly for the reasons listed. A frontcourt of Copeland/Scola will not work if any of our bigs get into foul penaties.
Last edited by PacersPride; 12-11-2013 at 06:01 PM.
Dear P_George,
You have received an infraction at Pacers Digest.
Reason: Unacceptable Comment and/or Content
Is there a way to land Nazr Muhammed?
"Look, it's up to me to put a team around ... Lance right now." Kevin Pritchard press conference
Ash from Army of Darkness: Good...Bad...I'm the guy with the gun.
That's why maybe upgrading the 3rd big at a low cost and then taking a wait and see approach with Granger and if needed make a bold move at the deadline for a wing. The only true weak link revolves around our backup wing and Danny returning healthy.
The FO was likely pursuing Evans as an insurance big and Lopez as a replacement or even another big to go with Mahnimi in place of Copeland. Have to look at it various contexts cause at that time my assumption would have been Cope was not on the roster.
I would guarantee other teams would take on Mahinmi at 4M.
from the list below I have a hard time saying Mahinmi is overpaid.
for example : Mahinmi > Camby
Also saying Bismack has better instincts than Ian is not true IMO. Bismack is just like Ian awkward, I do like how he is playing this year he is a solid b/u now IMO.
Last edited by pacer4ever; 12-11-2013 at 06:30 PM.
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
Or throw in a first-round pick and flip it for a max-level point guard...


text:
Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
Juliette's touch literally shatters people. After incarceration, the Reistablishment frees her in exchange for the use of her abilities. Adam, the only person she could ever touch without consequences, provides another option. The author mentions Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" during the novel. That poem centers around the idea of choice and fits well with the story.
The Selected Poems of Robert Frost
- nb


text:
Note: This item is more than eight years old. Please take the publication date into consideration for any date references.
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News Release
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Oct. 17, 2008
Memorial Fund Created for Fallen Game Warden George H. Whatley
AUSTIN, Texas — A memorial fund has been set-up for the family of Texas Game Warden George H. Whatley. Whatley, a 45-year-old native of Atlanta, Texas, died in Fort Stockton Friday, Oct. 10, after participating in a training exercise.
Whatley was a 2007 graduate of the Texas Game Warden Academy and was stationed in Van Horn. He is survived by his wife, Kelly, and two sons: Sam, 14; and Seth, 13.
Whatley was laid to rest with full law enforcement honors Wed., Oct. 15 at Savannah Cemetery in Marion County.
Donations may be made to the George Whatley Family Fund at Domino Federal Credit Union, 901 West Main Street, Atlanta, TX, 75551.
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(5.4.16 i)


text:
Thought by some researchers to have been the daughter of Robert Donelson Eaton and Jennet Chamberlain, Margaret married Wm. P. Humbard in Grainger Co., TN, on 8 Feb. 1825, with Andrew Chamberlain Eaton (her brother?) serving as bondsman. Margaret and Wm., who moved to IL sometime before 1850, were the parents of five children, all of them born in TN: Andrew S.; Margaret E.; Wm., John P.; and Mary E.
- Birth:
- 1805 1


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Did you know?
Rainfall in the Seven Passes region can reach 2 540mm in a single year.
A delightful detour off the N2 coastal highway on the Garden Route is known as the Seven Passes route between George and Knysna. It's a scenic route which passes guest farms, tiny wooden settlements and whisks visitors through the dramatic Phantom Pass, named for a butterfly and not a ghost.
The Seven Passes route is a 75km trip that takes you past seven gorges cut deep by rivers flowing to the sea. Legendary engineer Thomas Bain designed the road in 1883, but it was a sweaty business for the great road engineer.
Not only did he and his crew have to battle through dense bush, he was also constantly at loggerheads with his brother-in-law, Adam de Smidt, who shared the contract. Their differences of opinion concerning the Seven Passes were so severe that after the job they were no longer on speaking terms.
In the end Bain came up trumps and produced a very user-friendly dirt road with his gang of convicts who, amazingly for those times, were actually paid salaries.
Today, you'll drive past tiny villages such as Rheenendal and Karatara, the scene of a brief gold rush in 1975.
The seven rivers for which the gorges are named are: the Swart, Hoogekraal, Homtini, Karatara, Silver, Kaaimans and Touw. You'll traverse single-lane bridges, forestry settlements, picnic at a place called Big Tree and slowly unwind as you absorb the relaxing woodland atmosphere.
One of the main attractions along this route is Millwood, one of the early gold-rush towns in the Outeniqua Mountains, which is also home to another mountain pass. In its heyday it had bars, banks, hotels and a police station. Today, there's a guesthouse, a small museum and a disused mine that's open to the public.
Travel tips & Planning info
Who to contact
Knysna Tourism
Tel: +27 (0)44 382 5510
Email: email@example.com
How to get here
There is an airport in George. From there, hire a car and meander along the Seven Passes route.
Around the area
Towards Storms River Village is the highest bungee jump in the world, as well as spectacular bridge jumps. If you'd like to get in touch with trees, try a canopy tour with Stormsriver Adventures.
Tours to do
There are many hiking trails of varying lengths that take you through the Knysna forest.
Get around
Your own car is the best option though many tour operators do operate via the Seven Passes route.
What to pack
Considering the high annual rainfall, a raincoat will always come in handy.
Where to stay
Knysna and George have many delightful guesthouses, hotels and B&Bs.
What to eat
Knysna is the oyster capital of South Africa so do indulge in a couple of these briny molluscs.
What's happening
Don't miss the Knysna Oyster Festival held annually in July.


text:
A couple of final thoughts before collapsing.
Lundqvist will be a Group II free agent the next two years so the Rangers have some wiggle room. So the option might be to sign him to something manageable for one more year before going for the big enchilada, since by then they'd presumably clear some more cap space.


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For the past three weeks, revelations that staffers in Gov. Susana Martinez' office were using private email addresses to discuss state policy have hit the headlines, alarming open-government advocates and giving liberals ammunition to lob at the Republican administration and its top-level advisor, Jay McCleskey.
The most recently leaked emails involve top Republican attorney Pat Rogers, who serves as a board member of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, a nonprofit dedicated to government transparency. Throughout the entire scandal, NMFOG has been a leading critic of the practice of using private email accounts to conduct public business.
On June 16, Executive Director Gwyneth Doland and five other NMFOG members met with Martinez, two of her staffers and two staff attorneys to discuss the matter. Afterward, Martinez set a new policy banning state employees from conducting public business on private email accounts, one Doland called "a huge step forward for government transparency."
But the revelation that Rogers himself had participated in the scandal puts NMFOG in a complicated spot. To some, Rogers' association with NMFOG undermines the nonprofit's mission of transparency.
"He is someone who has showed up repeatedly in meetings lobbying on behalf of legislation that FOG has supported," state Rep. Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, tells SFR. "He should know it is not appropriate to do state business on private email accounts."
On June 26, the liberal Independent Source PAC released three private emails from Rogers to Martinez' deputy chief of staff, Ryan Cangiolosi. The subject of the emails, dating from September to November 2011, involved a 25-year lease extension for an upgraded State Fair racino, at an estimated cost of $20 million to build and expected to bring in $1.75 billion over the lease's lifetime.
At the time, the Downs at Albuquerque had been operating the racino—which today remains in a degraded condition—for 25 years. Rogers was their attorney.
"Larry Kennedy needs to lock down Bitsui," reads one email Rogers sent to Cangiolosi and McCleskey on Nov. 1, 2011.
Kennedy and Ruth Bitsui are state fair commissioners—members of the body slated to vote on who got the lease. Three weeks later, both joined David "Hossie" Sanchez and Kenneth "Buster" Goff in narrowly awarding the lease to the Downs by a 4-3 vote (Laguna Housing Development was the only other bidder).
The governor's office, which declined to comment for this story, has maintained that the emails were illegally hacked and that Cangiolosi never received them. But State Fair Commissioner Charlotte Rode, R-Albuquerque, says she believes the communications were in violation of state procurement code.
While state fair commissioners had the final say in determining which company was awarded the lease, Rode and others maintain that Rogers and the governor's office orchestrated the deal from the get-go.
Shareholders and staffers of the Downs have contributed to the governor's political campaigns. In total, they gave more than $75,000 directly to Martinez between June 2010 and January 2011. They also gave an additional $10,000 to Susana PAC, which McCleskey operates, between May and July 2011.
Other leaked emails between Rogers and Cangiolosi show disdain for Rode, the most vocal opponent of awarding the lease extension to the Downs.
In a message titled "dragon lady," Rogers criticizes Rode for copying Albuquerque Journal reporter Charles Brunt on an email to state fair (officially called Expo New Mexico) General Manager Dan Mourning demanding a meeting.
"I need 5 minutes of your time, quickly, this am, now," Rogers wrote in the email to Cangiolosi and McCleskey on Oct. 31. Rogers declined to comment for this story.
"It doesn't surprise me at all," Rode, referring to the private emails, tells SFR. "It was obvious through this whole thing that the [Martinez] administration, Pat Rogers, [lobbyist] Mickey Barnett and the Downs were all partners. They behaved, they spoke like, they communicated like [and] they negotiated like partners. There was no separation of authority."
While ISPAC maintains the deal was a pay-to-play conspiracy, others say it indicates a sloppy state agency with no oversight.
"For a long time, the State Fair has operated as a stand-alone enterprise exclusively overseen by the office of the governor," state Sen. Tim Keller, D-Bernalillo, who represents part of the area, tells SFR.
Last October, the Legislative Finance Committee released an extensive report that found the State Fair "operationally insolvent" with a lack of oversight resulting in "contract irregularities and inadequate cash controls." Keller unsuccessfully carried a bill addressing these problems during the 2012 legislative session.
Now, outside entities are starting to investigate the Downs deal. On June 26, the same day the Downs-related emails leaked, Rode met with State Auditor Hector Balderas.
"She came in and expressed some of her concerns and provided documentation," Antonio Corrales, director of operations and compliance at the Office of the State Auditor, tells SFR.
Corrales adds that the probe is still in its infancy. Doland, McCleskey and Expo New Mexico didn't comment for this story before press time. But as construction commences on the racino and the Downs prepares to bring in an estimated $70 million each year once the renovation is complete, state employees—and those like McCleskey and Rogers who work with them—may have to re-evaluate the way they use their private email accounts.
"If [Rogers] believed in the concept that FOG says they stand for, he wouldn't have been doing this," vocal Downs critic and state Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Bernalillo, tells SFR.


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Related Suppliers
A recent move to reclaim in-house production scrap paid off in six months for one processor of foamed film. In business for more than 40 years, Pak-Lite Inc. (PLI), Suwanee, Ga., previously had given its production scrap to local recyclers, says Paul Dooley, director of corporate development. "We simply could not compact the material," which is used in automotive and other applications, he explains.
So in June 2010, PLI turned to Process Control Corp., Atlanta, and ordered that company's Automatic Scrap Recycling (ASR) system. The package consisted of its RMX Series Refeed Machine, GF Series Film Grinder, RFN roll feeder, RN Series vacuum receiver, and CY Series cyclone. The film grinder is designed to cut thin-gauge scrap to yield the highest bulk density and best flowability. The cutting chamber features double-angled knives for a clean slicing action. PLI upgraded its system in May of last year with an additional grinder and other enhancements.


text:
Demi Moore whines like an old woman – because she is one
Demi Moore has spent an estimated $450K on cosmetic surgery to defy the ravages of time. Unfortunately, despite her looks, she still can't land roles and recently started crying about ageism in Hollywood. I was hoping she'd bake some cookies or knit a quilt instead, but here's what she had to say, as reported by The Sun:
"It's been a challenging few years, being the age I am. Almost to the point where I felt like, well, they don't know what to do with me. I am not 20. Not 30. There aren't that many good roles for women over 40. A lot of them don't have much substance, other than being someone's mother or wife."
Demi forked over big bucks to keep her body in shape, but didn't get the results she was looking for:
As well as breast implants, collagen injections and liposuction on her hips, thighs and stomach, she had a £5,000 (roughly $10K U.S. dollars) procedure to lift the sagging skin on her knees.
She also employed an army of advisers – including a nutritionist, personal trainer, yoga teacher and kick-boxing coach.
But since then she has appeared in just two films, Bobby and Half Light, with two more scheduled for release this autumn.
You know what would be a great role for Demi Moore? Playing someone's grandmother. Ashton Kutcher's perhaps. She'd bring some real authenticity to the role. I honestly should be a casting director. Except I'd always have to cast myself as the Romantic Lead. I'm perfect for it, what with these rock-hard pecs, sweet biceps and a jawline that makes women want to passionately ravage me then do my laundry. But I'd make sure I cast someone hot to be my love interest. No one over 30. Dude, that's gross. Why would you even suggest that? Your mom ate modeling glue while you were in the womb? Say no more.


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You exercise your body to stay physically in shape, so why shouldn't you exercise your brain to stay mentally fit? With these daily exercises you will learn how to flex your mind, improve your creativity and boost your memory. As with any exercise, repetition is necessary for you to see improvement, so pick your favorite exercises from our daily suggestions and repeat them as desired. Try to do some mentalrobics every single day!
The number of subjects or objects that a verb refers to in a sentence is called its valence. A verb that has only one subject is called an intransitive verb. In these sentences, there is no receiver of the action. Examples:
Bob whispers all the time.
Jane was the prettiest girl in school.
A verb that takes a subject and an object is called a transitive verb. In these sentences, something receives the action. Sometimes the doer of the action is omitted from the sentence, but it still counts as a transitive verb. Examples:
Frank eats ice cream.
Sally kicked the ball.
The ball was kicked.
Some verbs can take a subject and two objects. These are called ditransitive verbs. Example:
Jane gives the dog a treat.
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text:
- Code: Select all
File "make_script.py", line 159, in <module>
File "make_script.py", line 51, in main
File ".../make_scripts/Parsers/makeX.py", line 172, in extractImage
process = subprocess.Popen(commandList)
File "/usr/local/python-2.7.2/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 679, in __init__
errread, errwrite)
File "/usr/local/python-2.7.2/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 1228, in _execute_child
raise child_exception
OSError: [Errno 13] Permission denied
I've tried using the pdb module to find where the error occurs, but no luck. I've also checked all the file permissions and they have 'rwx'. The only thing I haven't checked (and don't have permissions to change) are the /usr/local/python-2.7.2/xxxx directories.
Does anyone have any advice on how I can debug this to find extactly what directory is causing this problem?


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Duchess Honeysuckle Cake Organic Perfume
One of the songs I've been listening to nonstop this summer is 'burn the honeysuckle' by the gourds. It reminded me of the scent of honeysuckle which lead me to this fragrance. It's honeysuckle and cake. Reminds me of a tea party, and I adore tea parties.