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Lanier Islands
7000 Lanier Islands Parkway Buford, GA 30518 770-945-8787
Enjoy pick up games with your friends at the Sunset Cove courts.
Catch a wave at the new Wake the Lake Cable Park!
Enjoy authentic Italian food lakeside!
We'll double your coupons for LanierWorld admission on Mondays!
Follow @lanierislands on twitter for more info!


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Lookism: It's all in a look
A comment thread on the NSVRC Facebook page got me thinking. This isn't new…our Facebook community is always making me think. Smart folks! This particular thread responded to a post about a compliments sheet for the workplace. Several of the compliments reference physical appearance (i.e. "You have a beautiful smile" or "You look great today").
The comment thread suggested that these sorts of compliments be amended to remove all reference to physical attractiveness. The reasoning was that these might promote sexual harassment in the workplace. I can see how this might contribute to an existing problem. Very thoughtful!
What got me thinking was the idea that it's inappropriate to pay mind to physical attractiveness at all. It led me down the slippery slope of anti-oppression analysis, and I settled into an internal debate on Lookism.
I struggle with Lookism, because I think it's very hard to ignore physical attraction. It's a pretty normal part of a healthy sexuality. I also know there's been a lot of research on the biological foundation for preferring attractive faces. Feeling attractive and confident about the way you look isn't necessarily a bad thing.
I think that what I've settled on in my Lookism debate is that it's important to separate simple facts of life from systems of oppression. The problem with Lookism is not that people are attracted to other people, or that people feel good about how they look. The problem is that there is prejudice associated with physical appearance. It's that people can be and are discriminated against based on the way they look. Even bigger than this is the problem of a pre-determined cultural expectation for what qualifies as attractive.
The reality is that what is attractive, or looks good, should be different for every person. I love the way this idea is discussed in the post "Dear Daughter, I hope you have awesome sex." Thank goodness we're not all trying to bed the same 10 people…that would just be creepy! The bottom line is that we all have a right to feel good about ourselves, as we look right now. We should all be free of an institutional expectation to look a certain way. We should all understand that attraction should be naturally coupled with respect.

subset: commoncrawl


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1) I still think the staged fights are dumb and mostly useless. But to a degree I agree with John Tortorella, that when a guy is in that kind of battle, right in front of your bench, teammates need to take that and run with it, at least a little bit … say, "Hey, this guy's putting it on the line, the least I could do is …"
2) Arron Asham has now played for all five Atlantic teams. Interesting point by somebody in the pressbox. What if Asham's suspension had been one game longer. Wouldn't have been ironic that he couldn't play against the team for which he took the infraction that brought about the suspension.
3) Thought Ryan Callahan played a much better game, a more Callahan game, especially with those two blocks on the 5-on-3 in the closing seconds of the second period, with the game pretty much decided already.
4) Didn't think many other Rangers, or most other Rangers, played better than they had played on Saturday.
5) Malkin=Monster.
6) Faceoff violation? That's what it takes for the Rangers to get a 5 on 3 and a power-play goal? Better not count on that.
7) I also thought Derek Stepan was better in a lot of areas. But he lost draw so cleanly to Sidney Crosby on 3-1 goal. Couldn't have been more cleanly. Skid didn't do much else.
8) If it's any consolation, the Rangers just lost back to back to the teams that are going to finish 1-2 in the East. But I don't think either of them played particularly great in beating ya boys. And if it's any consolation, they only have five back-to-backs remaining.
9) By the way, this 48 games in 99 days thing. Last year they played their final 48 games in 100 days.
10) I am not totally saying this is because they don't have the two Brandons around, because it can't be. But they sure have been missing that Rangers' "jam" the first two games.
11) The renovated place looks great, though I sure heard some complaints about the crowded concourses and people having their seats moved up near the roof. But man was it quiet in there. They also raised an Atlantic Division banner … without ceremony, thank goodness.
12) The "Bud Light first-period highlights" on the arena scoreboard included three replays of the Rangers goal, none of any of the Penguins' three goals, and a couple of the 11 saves (on 14 shots) made by Henrik Lundqvist in the period.
13) ps, I didn't think Henrik Lundqvist played great in Boston. I didn't think he was that bad last night.
My Three Rangers Stars:
1. Rick Nash.
2. Ryan Callahan.
3. Derek Stepan.
Mitch Beck's Three Rangers Stars:
1. Rick Nash – Total all-around game and the SHG.
2. Ryan Callahan – Goal, blocked shots and seemed to be in the middle of everything.
3. Derek Stepan – Two Assists and good overall play.
Your poll vote for the Three Rangers Stars:
1) Rick Nash (24.32 %).
2) Ryan Callahan (16.89 %).
3) tie, Taylor Pyatt and Martin Biron (9.46 %).
Photos by Getty Images, above.


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Rigor, relevance key pieces of Core curriculum
Work smarter, not harder, as the old saying goes.
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Editor's Note
This article is part two of a four-part series running this week exploring the changes and challenges facing students, teachers and parents as local districts continue to expand implementation of the Iowa Core curriculum.
December 4, 2013
By increasing the complexity of schoolwork and simultaneously linking the lessons to real-world situations, the Iowa Core seeks to enable students to do just that.
"Whether in kindergarten or a senior in high school, the state has mandated that we raise the bar," said Brent Jorth, principal in the Coon Rapids-Bayard school district.
In the district, educators have seen the math concepts shift. For several years, accelerated students were sent to high school algebra classes. Today, all seventh- and eighth-grade students are expected to participate in algebra classes.
A similar effect has been seen in the reading curriculum. At East Sac High School, English teacher Melissa Salgado said she now teaches her high school students books she didn't encounter until she reached college, such as "One Hundred Years of Solitude" or "Chronicle of a Death Foretold" by Gabriel García Márquez.
Those higher expectations can be traced all the way back to kindergarten. It used to be a year focused on children's socialization, explained Jefferson-Scranton superintendent Tim Christensen. Now, kindergarten students are expected to learn to read, while the job of teaching letters and sounds has fallen to preschool teachers.
"Some people might equate (increased rigor) with more work, but we're not looking at more work, we're looking at more complex work, more complex thinking," explained Margie Schwenk, curriculum coordinator at Coon Rapids-Bayard.
One way educators are increasing this critical-thinking component is by requiring more analysis from their students.
"Instead of tell me where it's happening and when it's happening and just give me surface kind of things, now it's tell me what would happen if the setting changed, and you look at that idea through six or seven books, and so they're not only getting exposure to all kinds of genres but to this big idea along the way," explained Abbie Julin, elementary teacher at East Sac. "It's not just dates and facts but connecting things and how they would change, and that's a way we haven't looked at reading and writing before."
Salgado agreed, adding that she believed high school English teachers in particular were "guilty of teaching books" as opposed to concepts. The Core requires her to incorporate tougher nonfiction pieces, from news articles to research papers, to draw connections with fictional pieces. It has also forced her to teach argumentative writing, again prompting students to analyze the text and find evidence for a position rather than simply summarizing a story.
"We want our kids to leave high school and be able to analyze situations and products and not get manipulated," Salgado said.
The incorporation of nonfiction and informational pieces helps increase the relevance of school lessons in the real world, said educators.
"How many textbooks do you pick up after college? You don't. You read newspapers, magazines, watch news, see video clips on television," said Julie Neal, reading specialist for the Jefferson-Scranton district. "You've got to be able to take in what the media have to offer you and be able to know whether it's a relevant source. Those are the kinds of skills the Core is trying to teach you. No matter what piece of text you're working with, can you evaluate it, make a claim, back it up with evidence?"
In math this focus on relevance often manifests itself in the form of story problems. Life rarely gives you only two numbers to work with, so rather than asking a student to plug X and Y into an equation, a scenario is proposed, such as planting a garden, and the student must determine which variables are X and Y - the number of rows and types of plants, or the number of rows and the number of plants in each row?
But the Core goes beyond just story problems to promote problem solving overall, explained Karen Sandberg, director of curriculum at Jefferson-Scranton. A key part of problem solving is to persevere when there is no simple answer, and recognize that a problem can be solved more than one way.
Teachers also incorporate more discussion of current events. In geography, the question isn't just which countries have mountains, but how do those mountains affect the countries' economies? In Salgado's world literature class, the question isn't just what themes are in the book, but how do those themes relate to individuals of different cultures?
Educators agree that advancing technology has played a key role in increasing the relevancy and rigor of lessons. Students have more access to individuals across the globe, whether it's an author willing to Skype with a class, or fellow students in a different region of the world, a modern version of pen pals. It also allows them to create products, such as a blog, that can demonstrate abilities to colleges or employers.
"I find that we haven't given kids enough credit in the past for what they can do," said Julin, referring to the Iowa Core's higher expectations. "They'll reach that bar if we just give them a chance and support them along the way."
Of five area schools, only Kuemper's officials said their curriculum didn't change much with implementation of the Core.
"(The Core) is a minimum. You can go above it, and we do in some areas," said Ted Garringer, elementary principal. "We've always had high expectations. I would just say it has been less of a shift."
Meanwhile, Salgado said she is eagerly waiting for the current middle school class at East Sac to reach the high school.
"They've had this sort of deeper level thinking stuff since early on," she said. "I'm excited to see what that will look like."
But each student moves at a different pace, even though all are expected to learn the same minimum standards. This requires teachers to incorporate differentiation techniques into their classrooms to make sure the slower-learning students receive the extra help they need and that the faster-learning students continue to be pushed, even if they are already on track to meet a standard.
"You have a (goal) that you want all the kids to get to, and some get there differently than others, but they still get there," said Julin.
In elementary reading classes, this differentiation is often achieved by giving students a common lesson from a common text, then allowing them time to read either on their own or in small groups. During this latter time, the teacher can pull aside different groups of students to give mini-lessons to those struggling with particular concepts, often referred to in education circles as "response to intervention." In other classrooms, students may read different books based on their reading levels but study a common theme throughout their different texts. In Salgado's high school class, she accomplished differentiation by setting up individual writing conferences with her students, allowing her to better understand how they learn and pinpoint what concepts each individual needs to focus on.
"We're trying to meet the needs of kids with a deficit and close that gap, and also extend the learning of those upper kids so that every student grows," said Sue Ruch, curriculum director and elementary principal in the Carroll Community School District. "We don't want any student to stay at the same level."
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Kathleen Parker writes about her stepfather, Mauricio Rubio.
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Gillette Venus Satin Care Shave Gel
Gillette Venus Satin Care Shave Gel Reviews
Not worth itI am usually a buyer of much cheaper shaving products, as I just don't feel like investing a lot of my money in products for a task that I don't need to do that often and have never been able to tell much a difference in the results. I did try this one though, because some of the scents sounded pretty. However, when I used it I found that the scent evaporated almost immediately, and the lather did...read more not come out the can smoothly at all. It came out in uneven spurts, and didn't stick to my skin very well at all. I didn't feel like it really provided a protective barrier between my skin and the razor, either. Finally, when I was finished shaving and it came time to rinse, I did not feel like it would rinse cleanly off my skin. It left a sticky film on my legs, yet it didn't seem to impart any moisture at all. It was just sticky. I don't think I would spend the money on this product again, as I was pretty dissatisfied with it. I would not recommend this to anyone. Save your money and go with a cheaper shaving product, as the fancy name and price just don't make a big enough difference. — 5 years, 11 months agoLittleBunny | 545 reviews
This review is: Helpful | Not helpful | Inappropriate | 1 of 1 people said helpful
omgthis stuff is terrible, dries skin out and doesn't protect from nicks and cuts. Not good to shave with — 7 years, 10 months agoBon_Bon | 522 reviews
This review is: Helpful | Not helpful | Inappropriate | 1 of 3 people said helpful
Works for meIt does what it says it does: it protects against cuts from razors. I like, though my preferred method for getting rid of hair is waxing, when I don't have the time, I miss a spot or two, I use this shaving cream. I like how it smells too! — 5 years, 6 months agoyestfl | 239 reviews
This review is: Helpful | Not helpful | Inappropriate | 1 of 2 people said helpful
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My Reasons for Reporting This


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Choosing the right paper that is made using sustainable methods is an important way to confront global warming and protect wildlife. When you go to the store, and stand in front of the many reams, or packages, of paper, it's hard to know what to buy.
What to Look For:
The first place to look is at the label at the end of the ream, which will show a variety of symbols. A typical ream label might look something like this:
Notice the symbols in the middle of the label? These are examples of the three types of symbols to look for:
Green Certification Programs
The Forest Stewardship Council certifies the paper came from sustainably harvested forests.
Green Seal certifies many green products, including paper.
Environmental Choice is a Canadian government environmental certification.
Recycled Content:
The chasing arrows symbol is the universal symbol of recycling. But some paper products are made from 100 percent recycled fibers, while others are partially made from recycled fibers.
When you see this symbol with the words "100% Recycled Fiber" or no words underneath, it means the product is made from 100 percent recycled fibers.
This symbol, which lists the percent recycled below it, tells you the paper product was partially made from recycled fibers.
Chlorine Use
Many paper products are bleached and this uses chlorine or chlorine compounds which can be very damaging to the environment.
This symbol is for recycled papers which have been processed without chlorine.
This symbol is for non-recycled papers which have been processed without chlorine.
There are many types of paper used in homes and offices, but the basic type is called "uncoated freesheet." These symbols should help you purchase environmentally-friendly uncoated freesheet. But if you have paper needs that go beyond this "workhorse of papers," such as paper for posters, books or magazines, then we recommend consulting resources such as Conservatree.


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Serving Bowl 31cm$59.95 RRP
- Details
- Find instore
- Buy online
Add a little svelte sophistication to your dinner table, with the classic timelessness of the Cashmere Charming Serving Bowl in white, from Maxwell & Williams. Made from fine bone china, so every dining occasion will be as luxurious as the next.
Fine Bone China
Product code
The stockist list provided below is based on the availability of this product. For general stockist information please use the stockist locator and call to ensure the product is available.
Available online at:


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With the release of ADEP and the introduction of the Experience Server (RIA services running on the CRX stack), developers now have access to data services within the ADEP Core (previously known as CRX) runtime. This means that data services components are now deployed as OSGi bundles in ADEP Core. This opens now interesting doors for developers building content-oriented applications (like the app we will build during my BYOD lab at MAX), In this post, I will talk about how you can leverage the data services MessageBroker to push notifications to Flex clients that a node in the ADEP content repository has been added or changed. There are many use cases for this functionality, but the one I find most exciting is in the context of mobile application development.
Imagine you have a mobile application that displays information stored on a server – of course we would use the ADEP content repository for this! The challenge for these types of applications is how to keep that information in sync. Make the user request a refresh? Build some sort of polling mechanism? Why? ADEP data services already has this problem solved with real time messaging. The trick is how to send a message when a node is updated or added (or even removed) in the repository. Before we tackle this challenge, lets look at how data services has been adapted to run within the ADEP Experience Server.
If we are going to use data services messaging, we have to add a destination to the messaging-config.xml file right? You bet, but where can we find this file? Not on the file system that's for sure. We have a content repository now. The best way to access the content repository as a developer is either to use CRXDE (an Eclipse-based IDE for ADEP Core) or CRXDE Lite (a web-based IDE for ADEP Core). For the purposes of this post, I am going to use CRXDE Lite.
Step 1: Creating a destination
To access CRXDE Lite on your machine (running ADEP Experience Server or the ADEP Solution Quickstart) navigate to http://localhost:4502/crx/de/ in your favorite browser. In this image, you see that the JCR repository path is /etc/aep/config/dataservices/messaging-config.xml. You can open the file by double-clicking it. You will notice something different about the include statement in the file. Instead of pointing to a specific file to include, we are pointing to a repository folder location.
<destination-include directory-path="destinations/messaging"/>
What this means is that the MessageBroker will iterate through each file located in the destinations/messaging folder and read in the configurations it finds. Which means that if we want to add a new destination, we need to add a new file in this location. In my sample, I created a file called com.adobe.tm.flex.broker.messaging-config.xml the contents of this file is typical destination config information:
Step 2: Loading configuration changes
This defines a new destination called "flexmobile". The only thing left to activate this new destination is reload the MessageBroker class. In the J2EE version, this means bouncing the app server or some other weird incantation. Remember that in ADEP, Data Services is now a set of OSGi bundles.To reload MessageBroker to pick up the new configuration changes, we need to access the OSGi (Felix) console. On your machine, navigate to http://localhost:4502/system/console/configMgr. Click on the Components button in the toolbar and locate the following class: com.adobe.dataservices.impl.ApplicationManagerImpl
In the actions column, click on the stop icon. Once the component has stopped, the icon will change to a play button. Click it again to start the component. This will trigger the MessageBroker class to reload the configuration xml files.
Step 3: Creating a bundle to send a message via MessageBroker
Back to our original scenario. We want to send a message via message broker when a node in the content repository changes. A very simple approach to setting this up is to use the ADEP WEM workflow engine. It has built-in launchers that can be triggered by content repository node events like update, add and delete. What I did in this case, was build an ADEP OSGi bundle that implements the workflow execute() interface so it can be called from a workflow process. Since this post is not meant to be a complete tutorial on how to develop on ADEP Core, please refer to Defining a Process Step: with a Java Class for detailed steps and examples. Here is the code from the bundle class:
/* * @author: Marcel Boucher (firstname.lastname@example.com) * MessageBrokerProxy class * This class is an implementation of a customer workflow step that can be used * to publish messages to the dataservices message broker running on this server. * */ package com.adobe.tm.wf.dataservices.messaging; import com.day.cq.workflow.WorkflowException; import com.day.cq.workflow.WorkflowSession; import com.day.cq.workflow.exec.WorkItem; import com.day.cq.workflow.exec.WorkflowData; import com.day.cq.workflow.exec.WorkflowProcess; import com.day.cq.workflow.metadata.MetaDataMap; import org.slf4j.Logger; import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory; import org.apache.felix.scr.annotations.Component; import org.apache.felix.scr.annotations.Properties; import org.apache.felix.scr.annotations.Property; import org.apache.felix.scr.annotations.Service; import org.osgi.framework.Constants; import java.io.BufferedOutputStream; import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream; import java.io.IOException; import java.io.OutputStream; import java.util.Date; import flex.messaging.MessageBroker; import flex.messaging.messages.AsyncMessage; import javax.jcr.Node; import javax.jcr.RepositoryException; import javax.jcr.Session; @SuppressWarnings("unused") @Component @Service @Properties({ @Property(name = Constants.SERVICE_DESCRIPTION, value = "Send Message to Data Services MessageBroker."), @Property(name = Constants.SERVICE_VENDOR, value = "Adobe"), @Property(name = "process.label", value = "Send to MessageBroker")}) public class MessageBrokerProxy implements WorkflowProcess { private static final Logger log = LoggerFactory.getLogger(MessageBrokerProxy.class); private static final String TYPE_JCR_PATH = "JCR_PATH"; public void execute(WorkItem item, WorkflowSession session, MetaDataMap args) throws WorkflowException { //Collect Message information from the dialog. String destination = args.get("destination","not set"); // Default Messagge. String messageBody = args.get("message", "not set"); //Set the message to contain the path of the node that has changed. WorkflowData workflowData = item.getWorkflowData(); if (workflowData.getPayloadType().equals(TYPE_JCR_PATH)) { String path = workflowData.getPayload().toString() + "/par"; messageBody = path; } //Create a new message. AsyncMessage msg = new AsyncMessage(); msg.setClientId("ADEP-Experience-Server"); msg.setTimestamp(new Date().getTime()); //you can create a unique id msg.setMessageId("ADEP-Experience-Server-Message"); //destination to which the message is to be sent msg.setDestination(destination); //set message body //msg.setBody(messageBody != null?messageBody:""); msg.setBody(messageBody); //set message header msg.setHeader("sender", "From the server"); //send message to destination MessageBroker.getMessageBroker("__default__").routeMessageToService(msg, null); } }
Notice that the getMessageBroker() uses the __default__ argument which is to indicate the instance currently running in the same container.
Step 4: Create and configure the workflow
The next step is defining a workflow that will invoke our custom class when something in a specified node tree changes. You can access the workflow console on you machine using this url: http://localhost:4502/libs/cq/workflow/content/console.html
In the Models tab within the Workflow Console, click the New button and give your new model a meaningful name. For example "Post to Message Broker". Double click on the newly created model to edit it. Delete the default user task from the model and add the custom step you created in the previous step from the Workflow group in Sidekick. You can double click the step to access it's property dialog and configure additional settings. When you are done editing, click the Save button to return to the Workflow Console.
That's it for the workflow model. All we want it to do is call our custom class to post a message to the MessageBroker.
The next thing we need to define is how this new workflow model will be launched. From the Workflow Console, click on the Launcher tab. You will see a significant list of launchers that are pre-configured in the system. We are going to add a new launcher, so click on the Add… button. Complete the launcher configuration settings and click OK.
ADEP will now monitor the node located in the path provided and launch the specified workflow when that node is modified.
The next step is to build a Flex application that subscribed to the MessageBroker destination and handles the messages it receives.
Step 4: The message consumer
Create a typical Flex application, you will need the FDS.swc library of course to use messaging. Simply define a consumer like you would with regular data services
<mx:Consumer id="consumer"  destination="flexmobile" message="messageHandler(event);"  fault="faultHandler(event);"/>
All you have to do now is build your handler functions and you now have real time notification of ADEP content repository changes. Go on and start building your content-driven applications.


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Meatless Monday is a global movement, a way of life. It's not a campaign to turn everyone in the world vegetarian or vegan; in fact, many involved are meat-lovers. Eating less meat has been proven to reduce the risk of disease, curb obesity and has important environmental impacts, too. Will you join us in giving up meat, just for one day a week?
Have you tried farro yet? I'm a bit obsessed with the nutty whole grain. It's a great alternative to rice or pasta and is often interchangeable with wheat berries in recipes. While you can certainly add a scoop to your salad or soup, I like to use the toothsome grain as the base of a recipe.
What can you add to farro? Pretty much anything. Throw in lots of crispy veggies and toss with a dijon vinaigrette to make Giada's Mediterranean Farro Salad. Serve with a simple green salad for dinner tonight and save leftovers for a light lunch tomorrow. In fact, I think it tastes even better the next day since the flavors have more time to mix and marry in the fridge.
This farro salad is very versatile. Swap in whatever vegetables you like (anything with a crunch will work nicely). Add in fresh herbs, use a different vinegar or hold off on the olives. You really can't go wrong.
10 ounces farro (about 1 1/2 cups)
teaspoons kosher salt, plus 1/2 teaspoon
8 ounces green beans, cut into 1 to 2-inch pieces (about 2 cups)
1/2 cup pitted black olives
1 medium red pepper, cut into thin strips (about 4 ounces or 1 cup)
3 ounces Parmesan, crumbled (about 3/4 cup)
1 small bunch chives, snipped (about 1/4 cup)
1/4 cup sherry vinegar
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
In a medium saucepan, combine 4 cups of water with the farro. Bring to a boil over high heat. Cover and simmer over medium-low heat until the farro is almost tender, about 20 minutes. Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of the salt and simmer until the farro is tender, about 10 minutes longer. Drain well. Transfer to a large bowl and let cool.
Meanwhile, bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the green beans and stir. Cook for 2 minutes. Transfer the cooked green beans to a bowl of ice water and let cool for 2 minutes. Drain the green beans.
Once the farro has cooled add the green beans, olives, red pepper, Parmesan, and chives. Stir to combine. In a small bowl mix together the sherry vinegar, olive oil, mustard, pepper, and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt. Stir to combine. Pour the sherry vinaigrette over the farro salad. Toss to combine and serve.
More Meatless Farro Recipes
Farro with Coarse Pesto (use vegetable stock or broth to make it truly meatless)
Farro Salad with Tomatoes and Herbs
Caprese Di Farro
Farro Risotto al Chianti
Kale Salad


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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/8/2014 (1093 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
It is one of GM Kevin Cheveldayoff's constants, that the Winnipeg Jets are all-in on draft-and-develop.
The draft part of the equation is always prominent, highlighted each June at the NHL's selection process.
The develop part is more nebulous, more scattered and certainly takes longer. It's here where the Jets have been both careful and deliberate with the prospects and those whose full-time responsibility it is to oversee the progress.
The franchise's first hire in this department was former Manitoba Moose player Jimmy Roy, who was trusted for nine seasons to never take a night off. And never did.
With development's increasing importance to the franchise, the Jets turned to another trustworthy pro, adding three-time Stanley Cup winner Mike Keane to the staff as Roy's assistant just more than a year ago.
When his 17-year NHL career was finished, Keane, now 47, gave five more leadership seasons to the AHL's Moose before hanging up the skates in 2010.
He was respected for his longevity, for the way he played the game and for his honesty in all departments, but his new job is not trying to recreate himself amongst the organization's strong stable of prospects but to facilitate the growth of the future Jets to be their best.
It means spending time with all of the Jets' draft picks and prospects.
"We make sure that everyone's on the same page with their coaching, their development, their eating, their billets, their schooling, to make sure the only thing they have to worry about is their hockey," Keane said earlier this week.
It means he's at times a liaison, sometimes a handler, often a resource. He'll watch games, practices, take players out for lunch, talk to their coaches to get feedback.
In building these relationships, Stanley Cup rings and long playing careers aren't the selling points.
"That's the biggest challenge," Keane said. "Say what you want about them, whether it's never being told 'no,' or being coddled, today's player is a different breed and they're very confident. There's nothing wrong with that but there will be a time in their young career where they're not as good as everyone and they have to start to work at it.
"I think that's when some kids get pushed out of the game because everyone becomes good and they don't know how to work past that adversity. We just try to make sure if we have kids who are really good at the junior or college level, that's the first step. Next step is playing against kids same size as you or quicker than you or stronger than you and it's up to you to overcome that and push harder."
The premise of this week's conversation with Keane was to find out if his new role suited him one year into the job and what kind of pressure he's feeling being one of the hands on the steering wheel of the franchise's future.
"Because of the Winnipeg situation, well, if this was Detroit and these kids weren't in their immediate future, it doesn't change things," Keane said. "You still want them to develop as pro players on and off the ice as quickly as possible.
"But you can't hurry it. If it happens to be a year, great. If it's three years, great. You want to make sure you're doing justice for the kid. You never say, 'You have to play this year.' That does nobody any good. That's all negatives. You want to have positive progression into becoming a pro player. I have no pressure because we're all confident in our abilities to lead them in the right direction.
"It's a strong group of young players and once they mature into adults and get a man's strength, their hockey talents will take over."
Keane's return to an official position in pro hockey followed a break of nearly three years, a valuable time he needed to reset himself.
"I wasn't bored," he said. "My years off were great; I could easily have taken another one off. But talking to a lot of people, they said, 'Don't take too much time off because there are a lot of people that want to get back in the game and if you do want to, you want to make sure you're still up with the game, in the pulse of the game.'
"Two (plus) years off was enough for me. I got great offers from people to coach but I knew that once I came back into the game, I wanted to learn it again, the off-the-ice part of the game.
"This is a great position for me, not a lot different than when I played for the Moose, talking to the kids and seeing how they were doing and making sure they're doing the right things and helping them along the way."
It sounds like he was ready to get busy when the Jets came calling in 2013.
"I had to get back to work so I could relax," Keane joked. "When I was off, there was always something going on. I talked to some players who said when they retired, they were bored. For me, there weren't enough hours in the day -- for meetings, hockey games, charity things, stuff going on with my kids. I'd work out in the morning and the kids would be out of school at 3 o'clock and it was go, go, go and get home at 10 at night.
"It was a lot of fun. I travelled, which I never got to do when I played, so it was all a good experience."
In his new role, Keane said it's vital to be working for and with people he knows well.
"Jimmy (Roy), for starters, does such a great job, so amazing," Keane said, then laughed as he dropped one of his customary verbal missiles, "I wish he had those smarts on the ice when I played with him.
"He's so computer savvy, has such attention to detail. He's unbelievable. He has a million things on his plate but he's really organized. This role is perfect for him because he has so much passion for the position. He's a great guy to have as a boss because you can bounce anything off him any time of the day. He always picks up his phone. That's pretty cool to have.
"Working with people you really know is your lifeline. You have to make sure you're surrounded by people you trust. I've known Zinger (assistant GM Craig Heisinger) for 25 years, and (Jets co-owner) Mark Chipman for a long time. I know what their mission statement is about. They surround themselves with good people, on and off the ice. It's about positive environment. You won't go wrong when you have those values.
"When they came to me about the position, I jumped at it. First of all, it's home. Second, I'm surrounded by people I trust -- Zinger, Chipper, Chevy, Jimmy."


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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!
When you let your conscious mind take a break from a task, your subconscious mind continues to process the information in the background. Sometimes, insightful ideas will flash into your mind. To encourage this, you can try this exercise.
Sit down and write a letter to yourself about the problem you are working on. Pretend that you are writing the letter to someone who knows nothing about the project; give a good description, including everything that you have done to date. Be as detailed as possible. Don't forget to mention any constraints that are imposed on the problem and what types of solutions are preferred. Then, give your subconscious a deadline. For example, you could write, "I expect a full report by the end of the week!" It may seem silly to write to yourself in this way, but give it a try. Now close up the letter and put it away.
Unbeknownst to you, your subconscious will continue to think about the problem. When the deadline approaches, open up the letter and read it. Chances are that by that point (or possibly earlier) you will have experienced a flash of insight that illuminates a potential solution.
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Case Trading Post at the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian: Beaded Medicine Bag by Rose Ann Whiskers
Beads have been everywhere lately - and not just on Etsy. I have lusted after bracelets, headbands and bags with beaded fringe. But, not only is this pendant one of the most intricately crafted versions I have seen, it is affordable enough to outfit all of your boho friends. And support a talented American Indian crafter. Ho Ho Ho: Win Win Win.


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Get stylishly western with this Short Sleeve Plaid Print Western Shirt by Cody James®. It has a solid print with contrast plaid panels along the pocket flaps and yokes. The classic stylings include double front pockets with flaps and snaps, a snap down placket, and front and back western yokes. Pair with dark denim and your favorite pair of cowboy boots for a great western outfit.
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Print Cody James® celebrates America's western heritage and traditional values of hard work, integrity and community. We believe in quality products and good value. We've handcrafted our boots with the finest hides and hand-driven wood pegs, ensuring they're durable, authentic and affordable. Designed shirts, made of 100% double-washed cotton, performance-sized with extra long tail and sleeves, suited for riding, roping and ranching. And offer real fur felt hats – handmade by families who've been felting fur the same way for more than a hundred years. Hand-weaved straw hats, for warm weather months, belts and buckles round out the line. Cody James® -- western performance gear that makes sense. See for yourself.


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Fox's The Five Falsely Blame School District Money Woes On Teacher Pensions
Blog ››› ››› ANDY NEWBOLD
Today, Fox's The Five suggested teachers' pensions have led to budget problems for school districts and are to blame for the increased yearly school supplies spending parents are seeing this year. But decreased revenues and state and local budget cuts are causing school funding to shrink, not pensions.
The National Retail Federation released a survey last month estimating that parents of K-12 students will spend around $688 on their children's back-to-school supplies, up from $603 the year before. The hosts of The Five used this news to launch Fox's latest assault on pensions for public employees.
During the August 22 edition of the show, co-host Dana Perino suggested the reason parents are being required to provide more school supplies for their children is partly because of "the squeeze that a lot of school districts feel because of pensions." Co-host Eric Bolling continued this line of attack by claiming that "the school districts are getting crushed by pensions" because teachers "stay on tenure, they continue to get benefits," and the school districts "can't keep up."
However, public pensions are not the cause of local school districts' budget woes.
A May 2011 report by the Center for Budget Policy and Priorities (CBPP) explicitly showed that "long-term pension shortfalls are not the cause of current state fiscal problems" and explained "[s]tate economies and budgets continue to struggle because of shrunken revenues and higher needs."
Additionally, the report noted:
The long-term nature of the problem means that most state and local governments can fashion a plan that postpones significant additional pressure on state budgets for a few years until revenues have recovered from the current downturn.
In a similar, but more recent, report, CBPP found that "states' ability to fund services remains hobbled by slow economic growth." The report went on explain that state "budget gaps result principally from weak tax collections" because of "the largest collapse in state revenues on record" due to the recession. The loss of revenue combined with the increased education obligations for the states have led to budgetary problems. From the report:
Meanwhile, states' education and health care obligations continue to grow. States expect to educate 540,000 more K-12 students and 2.5 million more public college and university students in the upcoming school year than in 2007-08.
Like the CBPP, a March 6, 2011, McClatchy article, citing Boston College's Center for Retirement Research, stated that public pension obligations account for a very small percentage of spending and are not the cause of states' budget problems:
Pension contributions from state and local employers aren't blowing up budgets. They amount to just 2.9 percent of state spending, on average, according to the National Association of State Retirement Administrators. The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College puts the figure a bit higher at 3.8 percent.
Though there's no direct comparison, state and local pension contributions approximate the burden shouldered by private companies. The nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute estimates that retirement funding for private employers amounts to about 3.5 percent of employee compensation.
Nor are state and local government pension funds broke. They're underfunded, in large measure because -- like the investments held in 401(k) plans by American private-sector employees -- they sunk along with the entire stock market during the Great Recession of 2007-2009. And like 401(k) plans, the investments made by public-sector pension plans are increasingly on firmer footing as the rising tide on Wall Street lifts all boats.
Yet Fox's attack continues on middle-income teachers and other public employees who worked hard to contribute part of their pay toward their pensions throughout the years so they could live modestly at retirement, and this is just one front in their war on unions and workers.
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FOOD and drink fans braved the rain this weekend to visit Claremont Farm in Bebington for Farm Feast 2014.
The event, which returned this year after a hiatus in 2013, rewarded thousands of hardy festival-goers with a galaxy of stalls dedicated to the region's best produce.
Tents crammed with artisan chocolates, cheeses, breads and beers stood alongside marquees housing demonstrations from celebrity chefs, including Great British Bake Off runner-up Brendan Lynch, and cocktail 'mixologists'.
A 'Vintage Village' showcased live demonstrations from Lindy Hop dance group Merseyswing and families enjoyed a dedicated 'Little Feasters' play area.
A live sheep shearing show, featuring dancing sheep, was the main attraction in the lower meadow area and musicians entertained visitors at two stages across the site.
Mayor of Wirral Councillor Dave Mitchell opened proceedings on Sunday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and a tour around the site alongside Lady Mayoress Sue Mitchell.
Speaking to the Globe he said he felt privileged to be attending the event as a "local lad" from Bebington and ahead of his final week in office.
Cllr Mitchell said: "It's brilliant to be able to support the farm and the producers and wonderful to see such a great variety of products produced locally and presented so well.
"I'm a local lad, I was born and bred in Bebington, so this is heaven for me. It's great for people to have the opportunity to see the way food is prepared, grown and made.
"I think it's wonderful that Farm Feast has come back after a short lapse and that it's expanded so greatly as a tourist attraction.
"In Wirral we've got the best of everything; the best countryside, the best beaches and as Farm Feast shows, we've got the best food too."
Traders at the event included the Chester Cheese Shop, Dough It Yourself, Chocolate Cellar and Muffs of Bromborough together with scores of independent retailers from the north west region and beyond.
Morag Moreton, who runs speciality jelly company Seren Foods Ltd alongside her husband Gerry, said her stall at Farm Fest 2014 had seen less trade than previous years but believes food and drink festivals were "very important" for local businesses and communities.
She said: "Events like Farm Feast give people the chance to try food and drink before they buy it and helps to promote small businesses, which are the backbone of the country.
"Farm Feast has a lovely atmosphere and it's really great to be back."
On Sunday night the festival's main stage hosted 'Livestock' featuring music from Dan Croll, Stealing Sheep, Soho Riots and headliners Peter Hook and The Light.
Ellis Anderson from Pensby, 24, said she especially enjoyed the music at the festival and was "surprised" by the variety of acts performing.
She said: "The whole vibe has been really nice and the music has been really diverse. It's been great to try lots of different types of food from local suppliers."
Andy Brown, 35, who travelled from Ashton-in-Makerfield, said: "You couldn't ask for more really; there's loads for the kids to do, lots to eat and drink and the atmosphere is really friendly.
"I hope it comes back next year."
Read our live coverage of Farm Feast 2014 here.


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Roseanne Barr goes on insane offense against Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt (Is it Crazy Day?)
Roseanne Barr must've decided she wanted to feel relevant this weekend and posted an entry on her blog attacking Jon Voight, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. I'll give kudos to Roseanne for calling Glenn Beck a "used tampon" before she dives completely off the deep end in an ultra-liberal rant that makes Rosie O'Donnell look like Rush Limbaugh. I'm, of course, talking politically and not physically because, until last week, I swore they were twins:
[Jon Voight] is a frightened little girl in a pink ballet tutu, who acts like Obama just wandered in from the rain forest with a bone thru his nose and a communist pamphlet in his loincloth. The neocons who own jon voight and make him dance on the chabad telethons are the worst most elitist people on earth. glen beck and jon voight are their bitches… both of them are used tampons who must be flushed down the toilet immediately! jon voight your evil spawn angelina jolie and her vacuous hubby brad pitt make about forty million dollars a year in violent psychopathic movies and give away three of it to starving children trying to look as if they give a crap about humanity as they spit out more dunces that will consume more than their fair share and wreck the earth even more. (just sayin').
Wow. Somebody's going through the change. Did she just attack Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie for providing a home to poor underprivileged children? Yeah, these two are clearly diabolical. I bet next they'll build a hospital for AIDS victims. God, what a pair of assholes. If only some heroic comedian that everyone assumed was dead would lambaste them on her blog. Oh, wait.


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Brewer at the Legislature: Wind energy is testament to greed
Groene at the Legislature: Holding NRDs responsible
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NFU urges smooth, transparent transition to Fair Trade framework
New interim executive director named for state brand committee
More Ag News
North Platte fought top-ranked Iowa Western Community College all the way to the final minute Tuesday before their best season ever came to an end.
The Reivers won by five, 79-74.
North Platte Community College, ranked No. 21 in the country, takes solace in 30 wins this season, the most in school history.
The Knights (30-6) played from behind most of the game after falling behind early to the Reivers (32-2).
The Knights trailed by as many as 14 points in the second half but never stopped battling, as they have done all year.
With 2:25 left in the game the Knights tied the game on a driving lay-up followed immediately by a steal and lay-up by Damon Brown to take a 72-70 lead.
The Reivers and Knights exchanged baskets down the stretch before the Reivers were able to knock down five free throws for the final margin of 79-74.
The Knights were able to force 16 turnovers from the Reivers but were out-rebounded 48-26 in the game, including 13 offensive rebounds by the Reivers compared to only five for the Knights.
The Knights shot the ball extremely well from 3-point territory, as they made 55 percent of their shots on 12 of 22 shooting. Ethan Montalvo led the way with 7 of 14 from behind the line.
Montalvo led all scorers in the game with 27 points. Damon Brown was also in double figures with 17 points and seven assists. Tim Simmons continued his hot shooting as he hit a perfect 6-6 from the field, including 3-3 from 3-point land. He finished with 15 points and led the Knights with five rebounds.
The Reivers were led in scoring by Dinjiyl Walker with 22 points and Ryan Bowie had 21.
I am so proud of the way our kids battled today and the way they have all season, said head coach Kevin OConnor. They never stopped fighting and in the end, give credit to Iowa Western for making plays down the stretch."
O'Connor said the program is indebted to the sophomores (Ben Wilson, Reath Jiech, Aboubacar Casse and Jack Kraemer) "for the work they have put in and for helping us get back here (to Hutchinson). Its difficult right now but we will look back on this season with many great memories.
Along with setting a school record in wins, the Knights were a perfect 14-0 at home in McDonald-Belton Gymnasium. The Knights also captured the Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference Champions with a perfect 6-0 record.
The Knights finished the season at the NJCAA D1 Basketball National Championship as they won Region IX for the second time in school history joining the 2009-10 team as the only other team to finish the season at the national tourney.
The Knights won the south subregion with a 14-2 record to earn the #1 seed in the Region IX Tournament, where they won four games in five days to capture the crown.
The sophomore class of Ben Wilson, Reath Jiech, Aboubacar Casse and Jack Kraemer along with transfer Eric Richardson graduate in May from North Platte Community College.
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ASUS Eee PC 1005HA: Refining the Netbookby Jarred Walton on 8/20/2009 4:00 AM EST
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41 Comments
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jigglywiggly - Sunday, November 22, 2009 - linkI just bought one about 1 week ago, and it's a great laptop. However with Windows 7 it runs like crap, it's sluggish. I put some nice Karmic koala(ubuntu 9.10) and it shines.
Do note, I tried Debian first, except YOU NEED the 2.6.31 kernel, Debian is, 2.6.26, yes I could compile it, but what's the point of compiling my own "unstabler" kernel for a stable OS? It's pointless, so I just went with Ubuntu which was 9.10. Oh and Debian Squeeze comes soon anyway.
It's way way way way faster in ubuntu, then I partioned it and installed xp professiona, which to my surprise was very fast as well. I thought Windows 7 would run the same, I was wrong, Windows XP still runs much better on really low end platforms.
It's not sluggish at all. One thing I did change was the ram, 1 gig, meh, I switched it to two. Also note, it only has 1 ram slot. Reply
rgathright - Tuesday, September 29, 2009 - linkThe ASUS 1005HA only needs an NVIDIA ION graphics processor to make it the best netbook ever produced.
I ran some benchmarks and give more detail in this review: http://bit.ly/44CHFm">http://bit.ly/44CHFm Reply
sillyfox - Tuesday, September 08, 2009 - linksharing for sharing
ProDigit - Wednesday, September 02, 2009 - linkDude,I get irritated reading this review!
Theymention that it wasn't clear why HD flash and HDmovies showed difficulty playing back?
It's the CPU. DivX,XviD and 480p H264 is accelerated enough by the GPU to be played back. 720p XVid and DivX should pose no problem neither, but the GPU has difficulty taking the task of decoding high bitrate h264 or 1080p video's.
The GPU does not accelerate Flash at all. Flash is decoded fully by the CPU.
The Atom CPU is a big bottleneck for a graphics processor in many games and high bitrate HD video's.
This is simple to see because many core2duo laptops are equipped with a GMA950 too and can perform considerably better in some tasks.
Videogames higher than 800x600 resolution, especially high detail ones, or with anti-aliasing on might also start to suffer from lack of GPU horsepower.
JarredWalton - Friday, September 04, 2009 - linkYou might try reading comprehension 101. I don't say it's not clear why they have problems but instead I state:
"HD Hulu and YouTube videos are a different matter, with serious performance issues to the point where they are unwatchable. It's not clear if this is a limitation of the graphics chip, the Atom processor, or Adobe Flash -- or all of the above."
It's not just the Atom CPU, as many people experience issues with HD Flash videos at full screen, even on high-end desktops. I'm inclined to go with "all of the above" as I think an Ion system will handle Flash better - hence it's not the CPU.
Contrary to your statement, there are drivers and GPUs where Flash is accelerated so that this isn't a problem at all. An update to Flash could address this issue in the future, just as updates to various other codecs could help with H.264 decoding.
I also provided an update indicating x264 playback with the CoreAVC codec works at up to 720p (with moderate bitrates), and your comments on gaming performance are already clearly illustrated by the graphs of 3DMark03/05 and my statement that, "If you're planning to try to run any 3D games on these netbooks, you will definitely want to stick with older titles."
You might try to calm yourself before posting rather than getting irritated by one little statement. Reply
ProDigit - Wednesday, September 02, 2009 - linkI hate these reviews where people are still 'in awe'of the fact that an Atom powered netbook should NOT be compared to a dualcore notebook. So much is obvious already for more than a year!
Testing netbooks in 3D performance is nice, but it would have been better comparing netbooks vs netbooks; Atom 270 VS Atom 280...
I am totally not impressed at all with comments like "whooo! look at the difference between an Atom powered netbook, how sluggish it performs to a Dual core!; Man, I did the find of the year!"
Get real...
Instead "Whoo" for the battery life, and how the 280 marginally outperforms the 270! Reply
JarredWalton - Monday, August 24, 2009 - linkThanks for the note. I tested with EeeCTL's "Ultrabright" setting and have added a comment on the LCD page. FWIW, I only measured about 250 nits (246 to be exact). Reply
heulenwolf - Friday, August 21, 2009 - linkF11 is my friend on my 1005HAB from Best Buy. It has many of the HA's features at a lower price, the most notable difference being the shorter battery life. All the buttons and toolbars are still accessible if you mouse to the top of the page but they're not there when you don't need them. This works on IE, Firefox, and Chrome. Reply
Voldenuit - Friday, August 21, 2009 - linkDo any of the netbooks tested have DXVA capable GPUs (and accompanying filters enabled)? How does GPU offloading influence battery life? Reply
JarredWalton - Friday, August 21, 2009 - linkI don't believe so... perhaps the GMA 4500 series can work with DXVA, but otherwise I'm pretty sure you need an ATI or NVIDIA GPU right now. I know I couldn't seem to get it to work on a laptop with GMA 4500MHD graphics. Reply
Mugur - Friday, August 21, 2009 - linkI have an Acer Aspire One 150 from last year (N270, 1.5 GB RAM, 120GB harddisk) and I must say that the "slowness" is far less noticed than some may think. I tested with XP Pro, Vista Ultimate and now I have Windows 7 Ultimate RC on it. If you keep it clean and with some trivial optimizations (turn off system restore etc.) it performs fairly nice on tasks like browsing, Office, even movies.
Some "myths" like not supporting Aero, or 720p video are false. It plays nice with Aero and using Vista's or 7 included video drivers I can play 720p with no dropped frames up to a certain bitrate. I tested with the wmv 720p clips from MS site and also with x264 encoded MKV files - the catch is to use Media Player Classic and CoreAVC codec (smt support). Files around 1 GB for a TV show (40 minutes) or up to 4-6 GB for a full length movie are 100% playable.
I have also an old CeleronM 1.73 Ghz notebook with 2 GB RAM and 120 GB 7200rpm hdd and, side by side, the Atom doesn't feel slower. The benchmarks are "true", but I think that they are not painting the real picture: for light tasks and with a "clean" OS and not a bunch of start up applications :-) netbooks are perfectly usable.
JarredWalton - Friday, August 21, 2009 - linkYou are apparently correct; CoreAVC ($15) allows you to decode x264 720p videos. CPU usage looks to be around 70%, give or take. I'll run the battery test to see how it fares under that load and update the text. Reply
Codesmith - Thursday, August 20, 2009 - linkAt your desk you hook it up to a 24" LCD, POWERED usb hub that connects to an external optical drive, keyboards, mouse, printer, and plug it into your speakers and you are good to go.
When you are not at your desk its small, lightweight and has insane battery life.
Even though I have a powerful gaming desktop and a 13" Macbook I loved the netbook, I just can't justify the purchase.
If I was a student, or traveled a lot I'd buy one in a heart beat.
ashegam - Friday, August 21, 2009 - linkregarding the browser size comparison (dots)
you can rearrange firfox to display your buttons, File menu and address bar all in one line (bar). Add "addblock" to it you should have the most browsing real estate then all the other browsers. Reply
JarredWalton - Friday, August 21, 2009 - linkWith the customizations you mention and with "small icons", Firefox is still *slightly* larger than Chrome. But I do like having menus. Of course I was going off of default settings, and AdBlock is an add-on... going there would open up a large can of worms. The basic comments still stand, however: the 600 pixel height is a real issue with netbooks and web pages. Honestly, even 768 or 800 is too short. It's on reason I miss the old 5:4 1280x1024 displays. Reply
GeorgeH - Thursday, August 20, 2009 - linkThis review suffers from the same thing 95% of Atom/Ion/Nano and other low-end performance reviews suffer from: too many benchmarks and not enough subjective impressions.
I already know it's pitifully slow. I already know it can't do HD video. I already know it can't game. What I don't know is how painful it is to use doing the basic tasks it was designed for, and when it starts to choke and become annoying.
This criticism isn't as critical for Netbooks, but if you ever do a Nettop review (especially for one designed as an office light-use low-power desktop replacement) subjective usage impressions under different types of typical workloads would be orders of magnitude more helpful than yet more graphs. Reply
bigkah624 - Thursday, August 20, 2009 - linkDitto what GeorgeH said. A netbook is for easy portable net browsing and document-editing on a usable screen. If you want a powerful netbook, then pay for it. Dont expect to spend sub-$400 (not yet anyway) and still expect all the sweet things most commenters are asking for here. If you want a powerful little box, go look at Sony's VAIO TT. And yes, expect to pay for it. Dearly. Reply
JarredWalton - Thursday, August 20, 2009 - linkGeorge, when we don't run the additional tests, people complain. Your own statement already sums up the situation: it's pitifully slow... compared to any modern PC. These netbooks are as fast as single-core 1.2GHz Pentium M Centrino laptops from about 2003. Plenty of people still use such laptops for office tasks, though.
Subjectively, you *know* the netbook is slow when you use it. Launching Internet Explorer (or Firefox, Chrome, Opera, or Safari for that matter) takes noticeably longer. Opening and rendering web pages takes noticeably longer. Interacting with Windows in general is far more sluggish. I included the detailed PCMark05 results for a reason, because they explain in numbers exactly what you'll experience with a netbook. An entry-level $500 laptop is about 50% faster at rendering *simple* web pages. Loading up AnandTech.com in IE takes around 3.5 seconds per page compared to 2-2.5 seconds. MS Office will load slower and take a bit before you feel it reaches full responsiveness (maybe 10 seconds or so).
Does any of that qualify as choking and being annoying? Relative to a really fast system, perhaps, but for $300-$375 I don't think so. Don't run tons of web pages in tabs, don't open eighteen applications at once, and you'll be fine. I don't know what you want me to say subjectively that isn't already conveyed by the performance charts. It's slow, but it's "fast enough".
The most annoying aspect for me continues to be the low resolution LCD. It's at its best in movies, and everywhere else I wish I had a larger, higher resolution LCD. However, it will suffice for normal office use. Note also that most web pages aren't designed for optimal viewing on a 1024x600 LCD panel - the majority don't have a problem with the width, but the height is a real issue so expect to do a lot of scrolling. IE8 (or Firefox) with the address bar, menu, tabs, and status bar uses 150 pixels. The task bar is another 30 or so (unless you hide it). That's one third of the vertical space without any useful content! Most web sites then put a ~130 pixel site banner at the top, and perhaps some other stuff. For instance, our site is 330 pixels before you even see the articles on the home page and 600 pixels to the article text when reading an article. It's why the touchpad gestures are useful, because you'll do a lot of scrolling.
Hope that helps... maybe I'll update the conclusion. Reply
GeorgeH - Thursday, August 20, 2009 - linkThat helps. Part of the problem is that in the past 4+ years I haven't spent any real time with anything much slower than a high end Prescott, so I have a hard time visualizing what scores as low as the Atom's really mean or "feel like" in practice.
After thinking about it more, I guess I'm really asking what types of users and what types of tasks you think Atom/Nano platforms would be acceptable for, purely from a performance perspective and beyond the obvious ones such as a 12th PC or simple fileserver. I realize that's a very difficult and highly subjective question to answer, but that's why you get the big fat paycheck, right? ;)
One scenario that might help explain what I'm trying to get at:
Imagine yourself as the head of IT for a large, multinational corporation (one that only uses mainstream applications.) The CEO wants to "Go Green" and replace as many PCs as possible with low power Atom/Nano boxes without negatively impacting productivity or morale. How many new PCs do you buy (if any), and for whom? Reply
yyrkoon - Thursday, August 20, 2009 - linkWell, I know you did not address me, but I would like to add on things that I feel Jarred left out.
First, I have helped a couple of friends do the initial OEM setup on XP netbooks, and they are dog slow. Boot up on these Dell netbooks takes what seems like forever, just to enter into the the welcome/setup screen. Probably around 1.5-2 minutes for first boot. Then going through the different setup pages for the various things such as computername, and network setup are very sluggish compared to say a doing the same on a Pentium 4 onward. Honestly, I have installed XP Pro on a PII 300 with 384 MB of RAM, and I do not think it was this slow( it was a few years ago ). This I would have to assume would have to do with HDD speeds but I am not 100% sure. In relation again to your Prescott onwards comment, I would have to say if you're not very patient, you would probably get upset waiting to do things, or perhaps start reading a book, or doing something else ( cook dinner ? Yes, exaggeration ). I myself got very frustrated just navigating around in XP home on these two Dell mini's, but I am not exactly patient. For someone else who has little experience with reasonably updated Windows system, they would probably be happy. *Until* they try and do something like play a game other than minesweeper, or tried using Photoshop, etc.
On the flip side of things, the atom classed CPU's would make for a fairly decent embedded system CPU. But only for certain applications, and definitely not in netbook form. unless perhaps a developer was using one for the development stages for some reason.
In your scenario where you may have a CEO who wants to "go green", there are better options. One could consider buying a specific motherboard with the ability to undervolt/underclock the system, and pay someone to set this up in the BIOS. George Oui ( last name correctly spelled ? ) from ZDNets tech article section ( before he left ) seemed to have done some very intensive/hands on testing of some of the lower power rated Core 2 Duo CPU's, and was able to to achieve ~50W for a single system including a LCD monitor ( full load ). That is definitely not bad for a desktop classed system, but you could do better with laptop classed parts in a mini ITX system ( which are available ), but at a comparitively higher price. All in all however, it would probably be better to contact an OEM vendor such as Dell, tell them what you need, and see if they can build something to meet your needs.
As for the testing . . . I do not see what they could do really. Well, other than what they have done except perhaps include system boot times. Only the odd "current" titled games such as WoW will play on these, and even on the ION platform, are terrible compared to any desktop system made within the last 5-6 years ( assuming said parts were current at the time ).
GeorgeH - Friday, August 21, 2009 - linkThanks for those perspectives, they're much appreciated. I should probably just go buy one and judge for myself, but $200+ for another doorstop is a little steep. :)
I guess for the time being I'll just stick with LGA775/AM2 for my low end needs. Reply
JarredWalton - Thursday, August 20, 2009 - linkHonestly, employees get paid so much more than the computers they use (in all but a few situations) that there's no way I'd recommend "going green" by using Atom-based systems. Let's just estimate that computer-related tasks end up taking 10% more time on average (because multitasking is going to be more limited on such PCs). If you pay someone $20 per hour, you've now wasted $16 per day per employee.
Even if it's only 5% and $8 per day, considering a 200W PC uses around $0.16 in electricity during an eight hour shift, cutting that down to an 8W netbook and spending a penny a day on power means that your net costs have still gone up $7.85 per day or more based on lost productivity.
Unless you're power constrained (i.e. in a data center), I think the whole green movement is just a bunch of marketing and political mumbo jumbo. Other "green" CPUs like Core 2 Duo would be far more effective at saving money over the course of the year.
Then again, the biggest source of lost money for companies is probably employees wasting time rather than waiting on their PCs. :-) Reply
yyrkoon - Thursday, August 20, 2009 - link"Dont expect to spend sub-$400 (not yet anyway) and still expect all the sweet things most commenters are asking for here"
I did exactly that, 3 month ago. But it was not a netbook, it was a full blown laptop, even if low powered. $399, free shipping. But, I did add to the cost by having enough foresight to order a 4GB upgrade for it ( $50 ). It will definitely not win any speed records, but at least it *will* run Photoshop, play video without skipping a beat,and play game titles such as GTA San Andreas, or Titan Quest with no problems. All while using a maximum of 40W full load. Idle is only ~17W. Battery life is only ~2 hours, unless you turn it down to energy conservation mode, but that does not bother me one bit. As a matter of a fact, playing no games, and turning the power option down, I have had it last 8-9 hours, but I was not constantly using it like I often do while gaming.
Also, at the same time I was looking at an Asus C2D system, with 4 GB RAM, and one of the newer 512MB/1GB N120 nVidia dedicated graphics cards in it. It was not sub $400, but it was sub $800. This is something that I personally did not ever expect to see, and wished at the time - I had the cash to divert towards. Sadly, I could not :(
Anyhow, this all just lends to what I have been thinking ever since netbooks have been on the market. Which is: "Why even bother". You can get a decent laptop, for close to, or the same price, and get much better performance for your price. These laptop also may not be built like an M1 Abrams, but if you're careful with them, they will last a good long time. Reply
qwertymac93 - Thursday, August 20, 2009 - linkim just waiting for amd's 45nm notebook chips, or at least their dual core neo's. the ones used by hp are custom, i want dual cores for everyone! is it too much to ask for a sempron 140 that uses 10watts or a 240 that uses 25? Reply
BigLan - Thursday, August 20, 2009 - linkIt looks like the xvid and x264 pass 1 charts have got mixed up - I'd be really suprised in any of the laptops could only manage single digit xvid encoding. Reply
JarredWalton - Thursday, August 20, 2009 - linkThe x264 encoding graphs are correct; there are no Xvid encoding results - I assume you mean the DivX results? x264 is much more complex than DivX, true, and the second pass in particular can take a very long time. However, the x264 encoding results are for a 720p video (graysky x264 HD Benchmark) while the DivX results are for a 1080p file (done in single-pass, quality-based, preset of 5). The settings and video source definitely have an impact on how quickly DivX encoding will run; a regular single-pass DVD encode is going to be about four or five times as fast in DivX. I'll add the video file information to the charts for clarification. Reply
Mithan - Thursday, August 20, 2009 - linkThese netbooks are all fine and dandy, but they still have not made one I want.
What do I want?
-1.6Ghz+ CPU
-Higher than 1024x600 resolution (1366x768?)
-Preferably an ION chipset, but I can still live with the 950.
There are a few 11-12" Netbooks on the market, but they all have that crappy 1.2Ghz Celeron or ZA520 chip or whatever it is called.
No, I dont want a 15" Laptop, even for the same price.
I guess the wait goes on...
Voldenuit - Friday, August 21, 2009 - linkWhat about CULV C2Ds and Athlon Neos? Ultraportable, ultrapowerful and ultraaffordable. Reply
qwertymac93 - Thursday, August 20, 2009 - linkever heard of the samsung nc20? its via chip is actually a little faster then the atom n270 despite its low clock speed. the only drawback is its $100 more then most atom notebooks, but it does have a 12 inch screen! Reply
Visual - Thursday, August 20, 2009 - linkWell I am a bit more hard to satisfy than you then. the 950 is definitely not enough, i'd not say that even for the GMA 4500... but at least it would have been a step in the right direction.
I also am ready to pay a bit more to have it convertible with a simple touchscreen... and pay even double if it were a really good touchscreen - at least 1024 pixels in vertical for adequate portrait operation, with multitouch, decent amount of pressure levels, both pen and finger sensitivity and ability to distinguish between the two.
Bonus points (and price) if it also distinguishes between the two sides of the pen or has a button or two on it, though buttons on the screen bezel can do the trick as well - they just need to be accessible in tablet mode. I think they are a must-have for emulation of hover functionality, where you're not forced to click and/or drag every time you touch the screen to move the "mouse" somewhere - anyone that has ever used a touchscreen probably understands this, so I really can't believe it's not a standard feature of every tablet by now. Reply
Mithan - Thursday, August 20, 2009 - linkI want it for Internet, Word Processing, Email and maybe the odd crappy old game, so I dont need a killer video card.
Still, 1.2 isnt enough speed.. Reply
gaiden2k7 - Thursday, August 20, 2009 - linkthey do have one - it's called a mac :p
and you can bootcamp W7 if you so desire
drawback? cost. Reply
orenlevy - Thursday, August 20, 2009 - linkas i Open the New 1005 i noticed immediate the charger plug that shrink to size of mobile.it is absolute drawback case when u move the notebook when connected to charger it is so fragile connection .i already have this problem with 1 client it is too thin for notebook world.
besides the surface of the touch pad
is strange if your finger little wet it is heard to controls the mouse.
that's all for now. Reply
vlado08 - Thursday, August 20, 2009 - linkIs it possible to compare the Acer Timeline 3810T (Intel ULV Core 2 Solo SU3500) with these netbooks (Intel atom) Reply
bingeboy86 - Thursday, August 20, 2009 - linkThis is a great netbook for making a hackintosh.
Only annoyances are no access to the wifi card or the HD with out really taking the machine apart. Other then that I've loved it.
Here is a good read if you want to install osx on it:
http://jpmcgarrity.com/blog/index.php/2009/08/asus...">http://jpmcgarrity.com/blog/index.php/2009/08/asus... Reply
jabber - Thursday, August 20, 2009 - link....when I saw the vertical res was still 600 in the spec list. Reply
Visual - Thursday, August 20, 2009 - linkit is also again using the old chipset and crap video, really disappointing.
JarredWalton - Thursday, August 20, 2009 - linkAcer AO751h is 1366x768... but it's not a clean win by any stretch. Review should be up next week. Reply
crimson117 - Thursday, August 20, 2009 - linkCPU = z520 = boo, hiss!
Am I really expecting too much for a ~$320 netbook without any obnoxious drawback? They fixed one thing (the screen size) but at the same time they ruin another (the much crappier processor), making this a compromise sidegrade instead of a sure-buy. Reply
JarredWalton - Thursday, August 20, 2009 - linkAnd just because the LCD resolution and size are "better" doesn't make the LCD the better choice overall. The ASUS display looks *much* nicer than the low contrast 751h... but I do have to say the 1366x768 resolution is much more desirable. There are a few other netbooks coming out with 11.6" LCDs as well; hopefully one of them will work better. Reply
buzznut - Thursday, August 20, 2009 - linkAFAIK, any netbooks over 10.1 inches do not use the N270,N280/gma 900. They all seem to use the m520/gma 500. What you lose in performance (clock speed) it may be gained from Win7,as the gma 500 supports HD and direct X10. Which I believe means GMA 500 supports Aero, and GMA 900 does not.
So slower overall, but perhaps more media friendly? Reply


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Sarah Jessica Parker Cover Shoot
The moleskin notebook with the elastic band closure work well. (As do the Derwent and Hand + Book version of this traditional style, read one authors comparison on this humorously obsessive website).
But the light, toss-it-in-your-bag cahiers and colorful volants have a more immediate and accessible feel. There are perforated pages to rip out at the end, super useful for passing notes to sensitive strangers on trains.
A customized journal is such a sweet, and safe, way to learn to embroider — before you set to work on those priceless vintage pillowcases. Shown here is the Monte Carlo; we also love the pattern called Rome. Embroidery instructions and thread included.
Pure Style


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Smartphone or Tablet
Applies to: iPad, iPad minis, iPhone, iPod touch, Android tablets and smartphones, Kindle Fire, NOOK Tablet, NOOK Color, Windows phones or tablets and Blackberries.
You will need to install the free Overdrive Media Console app on your device before checking out and downloading eBooks. This program allows you to search our collection and manages the e-books and audiobooks you have borrowed. It can be downloaded directly using the app store on your device. This initial setup only has to be completed once. You should always use the most updated version of the Overdrive App.
Go to the device's app store.
Search for "OverDrive" in the app store. This app should have a large white "O" in the center on a blue background.
"Purchase" the app and install. The app is free.
You will need an Adobe ID to use the OverDrive app.
If you do not already have an Adobe ID:
Follow the authorization instructions for the device: Apple, Android, Kindle, NOOK, Windows, BlackBerry
Or by following these steps:
Go to www.adobe.com
Click on "Sign In" in the top right corner of the screen.
Click on "Don't have an Adobe ID?"
Follow the steps to create your Adobe ID.
Open the OverDrive app if it is not already open.
Navigate to the "Settings" menu. Swipe from left to right across your screen. Then tap "Settings."
Enter your Adobe ID and password.
Tap "Authorize."
(Apple users will need to tap Authorize before entering user ID and password.)
Choose any Springfield-Greene County library that appears in the list. (Your branch may not appear.)
Tap on the star that appears next to the branch in order to save this library to your device.
(If the website does not appear, swipe from left to right on your screen, then tap on "Springfield-Greene County Library." If you are reading a book, tap on the middle of the screen, then tap on the icon on the top left to exit the book and see the menu.)
Reading & Returning Books
Find this article at


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Posted 6 years ago
(115 items)
I thought I would put up a couple pictures of a bit of jewelry I have as well as a beaded knife sheath I hope someone will identify for me as to tribe. The sheath is old and the leather is starting to get stiff on the back. It has what is called "greasy yellow" beads on it and it is the lazy stitch on the beading. The fringes are still very soft and I would love to know what tribe made this. Hopefully someone can tell me by the design.
The necklace and earrings are made from Quahog shells, also known as Wampum. The necklace was made by Elizabeth James Perry who is well known for her Wampum handmade jewelry. The earrings were made by Andrew Hunter who was also well known for Wampum making. He passed away in late 2007 from cancer so I am very honored to have something made by him.
There is also a beaded bag, I am not sure who made it but it looks like the Iroquois tribes' work. It is old, and has alot of bead loss on the other side but the beading that is still there is beautiful.
The other is a Beaver tooth necklace, made by the Ojibwe tribe. And the other bag came from Canada. I use it to keep the stone part of my pipe in.


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A Beer froster is a specially-designed refrigerator (well, technically a freezer)
that holds beer at 24 degrees... the absolute coldest temperature a beer can get without freezing!
First came wine refrigerators for the oenophiles, a way to properly store, age, present and serve wines in a way that does not damage wine. Now comes the beer froster for beer lovers, an appliance for home or business that serves beer in the way that it was meant to be served. As cold as it can get!
A beer chilled in your beer froster is so cold that the moisture that condenses on it from the air will flash-freeze. It will literally fall out of the air as frost. When you open the beer to drink, a small amount of water may flash-freeze on the surface, extending the coldness. This should re-melt when consumed or decanted.
The coldest beer is going to be in an aluminum bottle. Due to its shape and composition, it will accept the lowest temperatures. You should adjust your beer froster's thermostat to at least 26 degrees for regular bottled or canned beers.
The best beers to use in your beer froster are those that are meant to be served cold. These would be American pilsners, most ales, Mexican style beers and many others. There is nothing better than a refreshing supercold mexbeer and lime in a frosted glass on a hot summer's afternoon!


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Yankees dip below .500 as losing streak continues
Despite early homers from Gardner, McCann, club drops fifth straight
NEW YORK -- The puzzling part for the Yankees, and one of the topics that may have Joe Girardi scratching the top of his buzz-cut all the way to Minneapolis, is that they more or less do have the players that they wanted up and down the lineup. The results just don't match the expectations.
A disastrous homestand concluded for the Yankees on Wednesday afternoon with the team's season-high fifth consecutive loss. Sean Rodriguez homered and drove in three runs, leading the Rays to a 6-3 victory and a series sweep that dropped the Yankees (41-42) below the .500 mark.
"Can't change it. It's over with now," Yankees captain Derek Jeter said. "It's done with. Anything that has happened up until this point, you can forget about it. We need to play better. Talent doesn't win games. We need to go out there and perform."
The Yankees went 6-9 in a pivotal 15-game stretch against American League East competition, a statistic that Brett Gardner was surprised to hear. Nodding to the dreary mood in the clubhouse, Gardner said, "I thought you were going to say 2-13 or something."
This marks the latest in the season that the Yankees have been under .500 in Girardi's managerial tenure. They were under .500 after 85 games in 2007 under Joe Torre before rallying to win the Wild Card.
"This team never quits, and they won't quit," Girardi said.
Rays starter Jake Odorizzi limited New York to three runs in 5 2/3 innings, picking up his fourth win. Tampa Bay's bullpen hurled 3 1/3 innings of scoreless relief, including Brad Boxberger, who worked the ninth for his first save of the season.
The afternoon started off in promising fashion, as Gardner slugged a leadoff homer and Brian McCann took advantage of the short porch for his 10th homer. But Gardner's fourth-inning RBI single was their last big hit as they finished 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position.
"I can tell you that they're doing everything in their power to try to correct it," hitting coach Kevin Long said. "I'm doing everything in my power to try to correct it, and we're just going to stay at it. There's no simple formula."
Progress may have to be measured in small victories. For example, Long revealed that McCann eliminated a toe-tap from his stance, sweating out a late-night cage session at the Stadium after Tuesday's game. McCann was rewarded with a 2-for-4 day, lining into the shift for the final out.
"When you lose, it's irrelevant, but it was nice to find the barrel with what I've been working on in the cage. It paid off," McCann said.
Vidal Nuno held the Rays to three runs over the first five innings but allowed a leadoff hit to start the sixth. Rodriguez greeted Shawn Kelley with a tape-measure two-run blast that struck the wall of the loading dock in left-center field, and despite 10 hits, the Yankees couldn't push another run across.
"The only thing I can control is on the mound and what I'm throwing," said Nuno, who was charged with four runs (three earned) and lost for the third time in four starts.
Tampa Bay's first run scored in the third inning, when a Nuno pitch to Brandon Guyer ticked off McCann's glove for a passed ball that allowed Kevin Kiermaier to come home.
Rodriguez singled in a run in the fourth before being thrown out at second base by right fielder Alfonso Soriano, on a play that was challenged by the Rays and confirmed by replay, and Guyer stroked a run-scoring single to tie the game in the fifth.
Despite the extended losing spell, Jeter said that he has not seen shoulders sagging or attitudes souring in the Yankees' clubhouse.
"You play this game, you're going to struggle," Jeter said. "When a lot of people struggle at the same time, it looks worse than it really is. It's going to happen. Teams are going to struggle. You point to any team in baseball, and they'll go through a stretch like this."
With the Stadium emptying on a sweltering afternoon, New York kicked it around in a sloppy ninth inning, as Yangervis Solarte threw the ball into right field for an error and Kelly Johnson bobbled a run-scoring grounder before settling for the out at first base.
"I still believe in this team," Girardi said. "There's talent in that room, we just need to play better. And it's a lot of different phases, you can look at almost every phase and say we need to play better. We've got to find a way to get it done."
Bryan Hoch is a reporter for MLB.com. Follow him on Twitter @bryanhoch and read his MLBlog, Bombers Beat. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


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ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. - The city of St. Augustine could soon decide the fate of Bayfront Mini Golf, a popular attraction next to the Bridge of Lions in the heart of the historic downtown.
The course is owned by the city but is leased and operated by the same company that operates Ripley's Believe It Or Not.
The city doesn't want to renew its lease with the course, and it has offered three proposals to St. Augustine residents: Keep the carpet golf course on the bay, replace it with something else or replace it with green space.
"While there's so much to be gained from historical attractions with families and children, children also have a time limit. Their patience runs out with the historical attractions," said Kim Kiff, general manager of St. Augustine Attractions.
It's been a topic up for discussion for the past few weeks. Now the people of St. Augustine can weigh in on the future of the attraction at a commission meeting Monday night.
"We had close to 6,000 families come play putt-putt golf in December to play Prancer's putt-putt, so it's become a big part of our business," Kiff said.
"I think it would be a shame because a lot of the locals, especially my neighborhood, because we're all retired, and this is something we can all do," local resident Shirley Finkelstein said.
"I think it would be a great loss," tourist Jeffery Tyson said.
The question arose when commissioners learned of the need to remodel the 1949 facility to bring it into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Ripley Entertainment currently leases and operates the golf course and says it wants to remodel the course with its own money -- about $50,000. But the commission now wants to discuss the future of the half-acre waterfront site to maybe be used in some other way, such as a wedding venue.
"There may not be a decision made (Monday night)," said Paul Williamson, of the city of St. Augustine. "It's not like they're forced to do it, but what's important tonight is to find out what if there really is a strong community reaction one way or another."
Bayfront Mini Golf is hoping to have an answer Monday night. The lease is up in September.
Copyright 2012 by News4Jax.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Westbury United Football Club manager Matt Bown has organised a charity football match and fundraising day at the club in aid of Cancer Research on Sunday.
Mr Bown, 42, who previously coached Chippen-ham Town and played for Trowbridge and Melk-sham, decided to arrange the fundraiser after his partner Lindsay's mum was diagnosed.
The event, starting at 9am at Westbury United's Meadow Lane ground, will include a youth match between Westbury United and Bradford Town, as well as a raffle, bouncy castle and beat the keeper contest.
Also set to clash are a team put together by former Chippenham Town manager Adie Mings and Chippenham Town FA Vase final 2000 captain Lee Burns' Chippenham Town veteran's team.
Mr Bown said: "We also have lots of activities for families and children to enjoy, including bouncy castles, raffles and there will be a barbecue on for most of the day. We have some great prizes for the raffle, including a signed Swindon Town shirt.
"All the money will go to Cancer Research which I chose because my partner's mum was recently diagnosed and is going through chemotherapy currently.
"My uncle also died from cancer."
Admission on the day is free. Gates open at 9am, with kick-off for the match between Adie Mings XI and the FA Vase final team at 2pm.
Mr Bown said: "I haven't got a target in mind, we just want to raise as much as we possibly can."


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Vocal Ensembles
Please see the Choral Activities website for information about joining Chamber Choir, Chorale, Women's Choir, or Recital Choir.
Link to Choral Activities website
Ensembles are open to all UMass Amherst students, subject to auditions held at the beginning of each semester. All ensembles appear in concert on campus several times a year. Ensembles have also been selected to represent UMass Amherst at conventions and festivals that have included Symphony Hall in Springfield, MA; the Washington, D.C. home of the Marine Band; and the Capitol Building in Boston.
Tony Thornton, director
Chamber Choir performs a core repertoire chosen from the greatest classical American and European choral traditions as well as from other parts of the world. Recent performances include the Fauré Requiem, Bach St. John Passion, the Brahms Requiem, Handel's Messiah and Missa Gaia by the Paul Winter Consort.
Stephen Paparo, director
Repertoire chosen to provide a wide range of choral experience representing many traditions. Recent performances include Bach's Magnificat, Mendelssohn's Lauda Sion, Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb, Randall Thompson's Alleluia plus African-American spirituals, Latin-American songs, Lullabies and Spring Night's Moon: settings of 4 Japanese tanka. The University Community is particularly encouraged to audition.
Tony Thornton, director
Comprised primarily of non-major undergraduate and graduate students, Women's Choir performs a wide variety of choral literature written for treble voices, including world music and works with instrumental accompaniment. The ability to read music is not required; open to Five College students with or without previous choral experience.
Tony Thornton, faculty coordinator
The Recital Choir, a chamber ensemble of 24-32 singers, is comprised of the graduate Choral Conducting majors and other interested advanced students, with the purpose of providing conducting pedagogy experiences for the Graduate Choral Conducting students. The Recital Choir performs significant repertoire from all periods, including masterworks with chamber orchestra. Recital Choir fulfills (with instructor and advisor permission) the ensemble requirement for music majors and minors.
Catherine Jensen-Hole, director
The primary ensemble for vocal jazz studies at UMass Amherst, it has been named "Best Collegiate Jazz Choir" by DownBeat magazine. Consisting of 8-12 singers and a rhythm section that is often augmented by horns, the ensemble performs both standard and contemporary jazz repertoire arranged by faculty, students and nationally recognized vocal jazz arrangers.
Vocal Jazz Ensemble auditions: Sept. 8-11, Rm. 149N. Info sheet (pdf)
Prepared music: Men Women (pdf)
William Hite, Jamie-Rose Guarrine & Marjorie Melnick, coordinators
A Performance Workshop for singers; A four-semester sequence designed for the future educator and performer alike. Students acquire lyric stage and production skills. Semester II culminates in a Scenes program; Semesters III and IV study and present a full operatic production. Periodic collaboration with the University Orchestra. Admission is by audition or instructor approval regardless of sequence.
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