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Bimetalix Joins With Spirex
Bimetalix of Sullivan, Wis., a producer of bimetallic single- and twin-screw barrels, has become a division of Spirex Corp., Youngstown, Ohio. Spirex, which makes screws, valves, and other plasticating components for extrusion, injection, and blow molding, now can design and build complete plasticating systems.
Alliance Develops Nano-Blend Screw
Nano-clay producer Nanocor, Inc., Arlington Heights, Ill., has a joint-development program with screw and barrel maker New Castle Industries of New Castle, Pa. Their goal is to develop plasticating equipment for injection molding and extruding plastic nanocomposites.
The first result of their technical cooperation was New Castle's October introduction of the Nano Mixer screw, capable of dispersing Nanocor's nano-clay concentrates in virtually any standard single-screw extruder or molding machine. Film-quality dispersions, however, require continued development.
Weatherable Film Steps Into People-Mover Role
Sollx decorative film from GE Plastics, Pittsfield, Mass., has found its first commercial application in the fender of the new Segway HT (Human Transporter) device. This self-balancing, two-wheeled unit, introduced last month by Segway LLC in Manchester, N.H., provides pedestrians with an ability to move more easily and quickly than before on sidewalks and in large workplaces. The surfacing film for this in-mold decorated part is extruded by GE Structured Products from a novel resin that GE now reveals is a polyestercarbonate, a type of polycarbonate copolymer.
"Esthetics are the prime reason for this film's adoption, since it provides a paint-free solution," says a GE source. A thermoformed film insert is placed in an injection mold and then backed up with GE's Xenoy PC/PBT. The film imparts a paint-like, Class-A surface that is expected to retain its color and high gloss for 10 years outdoors. It also offers scratch and chemical resistance.
The Segway HT is electrically powered and uses a gyroscope to balance the rider and guide movement at up to 12.5 mph. The rider can carry up to 75-lb loads. The device has a footprint narrower than an average adult's shoulder width. Initial evaluation of the devices is already under way by the U.S. Postal Service, Michelin North America, and the U.S. National Park Service.
GE expects to make Sollx film generally available by mid-2002. Development programs using Sollx film are under way in automotive and other areas. GE is also developing thicker sheet versions.
Three-Way Alliance for TP/TS Molding
Three German-based materials and machinery firms have signed a cooperation agreement to develop hard/soft combinations of engineering thermoplastics and thermoset silicone elastomers. Hard parts with molded-in seals would be one example. The partners are Bayer AG, GE Bayer Silicones (a joint venture of Bayer and GE Silicones), and Krauss-Maffei. Their efforts will focus on using K-M two-component, rotary-platen machines to mold liquid silicone and Bayer's nylon, polycarbonate, and PBT, plus alloys.
Chevron Phillips To Add PPS Compounds
To satisfy fast-growing demand for PPS materials, Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. is building a new 15.4-million-lb/yr compounding plant in Houston, where the company is headquartered. It will start up in September.
Cargill Dow PLA Plant Starts Up
The first-ever world-scale production facility for biodegradable polylactide (PLA) polymers opened last month in Blair, Neb. The 300-million-lb/yr plant produces NatureWorks PLA for the Cargill Dow LLC joint venture, based in Minnetonka, Minn. The resin is made from lactic acid, which is produced from cornstarch and other plant carbohydrates by bacterial fermentation. Using material from a semi-works plant, Cargill Dow has already developed applications in fibers, thermoformed containers, cups, and packaging films. Current commercial uses include film for packaging golf balls and mini-CDs, as well as thermoformed trays and film for packaging fresh pasta and salads. PLA is said to show good clarity, gloss, deadfold, twist retention, heat-sealability, and flavor and aroma barrier. After use, the material is fully compostable.
Meanwhile, Cargill Dow is now collaborating with Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. of Tokyo on PLA technology and market development. The companies are exchanging intellectual property and technical information. Customers of both parties will thereby not have to be concerned about potential patent restrictions from either firm. Mitsui has the rights to sell PLA resin in Japan, and Cargill Dow will continue to sell PLA to its accounts worldwide, including those in Japan.
Mitsui makes its own Lacea-brand PLA resin in a pilot plant. Dow found that Mitsui's technology for materials, processing, and applications can be applied to NatureWorks PLA. Dow will supply resin from its new plant to Mitsui, which will sell it under the Lacea name.
PolyOne Expands Out West
This month, PolyOne Corp. of Cleveland plans to complete an expansion of its color-compounding plant in Glendale, Ariz. It will almost double plant capacity, improve rapid-response capabilities by focusing on small- and medium-lot order sizes, and greatly enhance customer service for the Western region, according to the company. The Glendale plant will grow from its present 25,000 sq ft to almost 60,000 sq ft. Many new employees will be transferred there from other company colorant facilities.
With the expansion and renovation, Western customers will typically see a seven-day or faster turnaround on orders. "We will significantly expand our services for the Western region for order sizes between 50 and 5000 lb," says Glendale plant manager Rod Myers. PolyOne will also establish six new Western distribution centers by the end of the year.
Hull/finmac Builds Nano-Molder
Hull/finmac, Inc. of Warminster, Pa., has an exclusive license to build the patented Sesame Nanomolding machine developed by Murray, Inc., Buffalo Grove, Ill. This two-stage, electric- and air-driven micro-injection press molds parts as small as 0.0001 g with walls only 0.001 in. thick.
Spirex to Supply Twinshot Retrofits
Twinshot Technologies, Rifton, N.Y., has licensed Spirex Corp., Youngstown, Ohio, to supply equipment for retrofitting standard injection machines for the Twinshot coinjection process. The process is a relatively economical way to mold sandwich structures of two colors or materials (including virgin and regrind) with a single-barrel machine. Spirex, which built the first Twinshot prototype, offers a special screw, barrel, and check valve to convert existing presses.
Eastman Delays Spin-Off Of Specialty Business
Citing "adverse market conditions" and uncertainty about the near future, Eastman Chemical Co., Kingsport, Tenn., has decided to postpone the spin-off of its specialty chemicals and plastics business into a separate company. Eastman expects to review the situation in the middle of 2002.
European Union Stops Tetra Laval Bid for Sidel
The European Commission, executive arm of the European Union, has vetoed the proposed acquisition of Sidel S.A. of France by Swiss-based Tetra Laval, owner of the Tetra Pak packaging business. According to the EC, the take-over would "combine Tetra's dominant position in liquid carton packaging with Sidel's leading position in PET packaging equipment." The Commission believes the two liquid packaging alternatives are too closely related to permit such a concentration.
Merger in Carbon Black
Degussa Corp. of Parsippany, N.J., and Engineered Carbons, Inc. (ECI), Borger, Texas, will combine their North American carbon-black businesses into a 50/50 joint venture to be called Degussa Engineered Carbons, LP. The new Parsippany-based company was scheduled to begin operating Jan. 1.
Sales and marketing will be handled by the Advanced Fillers & Pigments business unit of Degussa. The new venture has six plants.


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subset: commoncrawl


text: My friend Harold called me about a month ago, asking, "Can you come speak on marriage at our church retreat? We have so many couples in crisis!" H'mm, I thought. I enjoy public speaking. The date is open. I can promote my latest book. It's a great opportunity to share God's love. Everything checked out … [Click to read more …]


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Bettye LaVette photographed by Elizabeth Fladung.Bettye LaVette has become famous (at last) by singing unexpected songs. Her recent albums, I've Got My Own Hell to Raise (2005) and The Scene of the Crime (2007), feature songs by Dolly Parton, Elton John, and Fiona Apple, of all people. But with her new, iTunes-only EP (out Tuesday, June 16), she's serving up more traditional fare: the title track is Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come"—which LaVette sang with Jon Bon Jovi, of all people, at the Obama inauguration festivities back in January—and others in the collection were popularized by Thelonious Monk, Billie Holliday, and Bill Withers.
As you may know, LaVette spent four long decades waiting for her moment in the spotlight. At age 16, she had a hit with "My Man, He's a Loving Man" (1962), but her next real break didn't come for another 45 years (though she released plenty of records and even worked for six years on Broadway). Exile made her what she is today; you can hear it in her voice, fierce and emotionally singed, but also in her unvarnished opinions about the young singers on American Idol, who haven't earned it yet, baby, but sure do think they have.
I recently had the chance to speak with Bettye, and found her to be great company: feisty, funny, and full of great stories. Here's what she had to say.
VF Daily: So the new EP is named after "A Change is Gonna Come." When did you first sing that song?
Bettye LaVette: Maybe a week after Sam [Cooke] did. I mean, it's a song that everybody sung. I'm very happy about the resurgence of it and the recognition of it, but it wasn't that big, you know, when it came out. It became much more significant after Sam died [in 1964, at the age of 33], but only because Sam had died. It was many years later that somebody, probably somebody white, associated it with the Civil Rights struggle. And now it's turned into something else. But I'm very glad that it did, because it's Sam's song.Did you know Sam personally?
No, not as an adult, but as a child I lived in Muskegon, Michigan, during segregation, and he was with the Soulsters Soul Stirrers. And if you came to Muskegon to do one of those gospel performances, you couldn't just drop by in a bar if you were black. So after the performance, you had to come to my house to have a drink or listen to the jukebox and dance. And my mother sold fried chicken sandwiches and barbecue sandwiches, and they listened to the jukebox and drank and sang. I was a very small child then, but those were the people who came by my house.
Many years later, Otis Redding sang the song as well, and you were close with Otis, right?
Yeah, we were both new people at Atlantic together. At that time, companies usually put a lot of their artists together, you know, so I was working a lot with whoever Atlantic had at the time, and I was new, and he was new, in terms of really recording or being heard nationally.
What was your impression of him at that time?
Just a wonderful, wonderful, warm person, and just a big country boy.
So it's true what Carla Thomas told him in "Tramp"? He was country?
Well, yeah, he was very, very country. I probably would have been as attracted to him as he was to me had I not thought myself so sophisticated, but I was as northern stupid as he was country dumb. I just didn't know it.
You sang "A Change is Gonna Come" with Jon Bon Jovi at the inauguration party in Washington, D.C. What was that like for you?
It was absolutely wonderful. I was there, being seen by more people than had ever seen me in my life—something that I had been working on trying to get done for all of the new president's life! And I was there with the first black president, standing at the feet of Abraham Lincoln. It was overwhelming.
Did you meet the president?
Yes, he had a short little audience with all of the entertainers after the performance. He and his wife both are people who, the moment you approach them, they reach for you. They don't stick their hands out; they reach for you. They were both extremely gracious, and the president assured that he was a lover of entertainment, and that he understood that we worked, as well.
You said the song means a lot to different people. What would you say it means to you now?
I don't know. You're trying to take me into some kind of spiritual fantasy kind of thing, and the song—I don't want to say anything that isn't really, really good, but it's not gooey and dreamy and prophetic and whatever, to me. It's a beautiful song, and Sam sang it better than anyone I've heard so far.
Did you see Adam Lambert sing it on American Idol?
What'd you think of that?
Oh, it was O.K. I don't think very much of kids who do what I do. To do it as well as I do it when you're only 20 years old, you have to be a genius, and there aren't so many geniuses out there. It took me 30 or 40 years to be who I am now. I think they're cute; I'm not thrilled about them being given whole careers in 13 weeks—I kind of resent that. They're all extremely talented, but I don't see that any of them got to be in 13 weeks what Frank Sinatra got to be in 25 or 30 years. So for them to be afforded every gratuity that being a star affords you is I don't think deserved.
Maybe if they had to work a little harder, they might ease up on the vibrato?
Oh, yeah. You know, I would fear any of those little girls having to come on behind Tina Turner. I've been telling this story recently because of the American Idol thing, about when I was working at Small's Paradise [in Harlem]. I was with Don Gardner and Dee Dee Ford—I was a band singer with them in 1963—and one night Big Maybelle came into Small's. Of course I had heard of her, but I'd never seen her. She was always having bouts with drugs and whatever, and she had just left another hospital—had just gotten up and left—so she had on these paper shoes and had some shawl or blanket wrapped around her and this big hat with a feather in it.
And I was laughing, of course. Me with my two-inch waist and big booty and loud voice, I just thought she was hilarious. And honey, girlfriend went up on the stage and sung "Candy" with my band. And the people wouldn't even let me back on to do my little set. It was disgraceful, and that was exactly what should have happened to someone who was—I think I was 18. But you don't live in doorways and get strung out on heroin and get kicked out of bars and get denied your career for 20 or 30 years, and then some little broad with a big booty come and kick yo' ass.
But I feel that these people on American Idol who are becoming huge stars in 13 weeks, it's tantamount to holding the other people down while you beat them up, and I can't get with it.
What did you think of the notion that Adam Lambert's version of the song was connected with the gay-rights movement?
That's what you need to do. You need to find the thing that makes it hurt for you. To sing somebody else's feeling is very, very difficult. It's impossible, I think. I'm sure that that would be where he would have to go to get something that would make him sing the song poignantly. I thought he sung it well. But it was just a little over the top.
Your recent albums remind me a bit of Johnny Cash's later work, where he left Nashville and recorded offbeat songs for an independent label. Is he a model for you?
You know, I've had more Beatles songs in my show than probably any other black person you've ever known. I've always sung just what I like. When I hear a song, if I like it, I sing it.
But on the new EP, you sing jazz and soul classics, which might seem more expected.
Well, all this while, that y'all weren't hearing about me, these are the songs I was doing for $50 a night. I was working in places where maybe it was just me and my keyboard player. So these are songs that I've always done, other than "A Change is Gonna Come."
My manager, Jim Lewis, who has now passed away but who got me around 1967, agreed that my waistline was small and my booty was big, but he told me I couldn't sing. And I'm like, "But I've got a record in the chart," and he said, "That's cause everybody doesn't know you can't sing. But if these records don't sell, you're gonna have to know how to sing." And I was of course resentful, and hostile. I had a record selling, that was in the charts, and he took me to see Billy Eckstine, and Billy Eckstine hadn't had a damn record in 20 years. And Jim took me to the dressing room and said, "Billy, I want you to meet a young lady who wants to be a singer." Oh, it broke my heart. And I couldn't say anything.
But Jim showed me how I could always sing. He said, "Just keep learning songs. Any song you like. Any song. Don't make no difference which song it is." I had records with people the whole while I was with him, but he didn't think very much of them. And as it turns out, he was right.
Anyone who knows anything about you knows that you're 63 years old and still a size 6. What are your fitness secrets?
When I was waiting for all of what happened in the last six years to happen, I was working out every day. And then I was working in my yard, I was cutting the hedges. All this stuff is kind of like farm work, so it's very good for the triceps and the stomach muscles. And I know that keeping the stomach muscles and the back muscles are what keep your voice together. People don't realize that it's a physical activity. When you go see somebody and everybody says, "Oh, well, he doesn't sound like he used to sound," it's because they let their stomach and back muscles go. So I try to keep those together, so that I can holler real loud, in case I have to cuss anybody out.
And I wear the size 6 just for meanness. Many of the things I've done in the last 40 years to keep myself fit, they were really done for vengeance. Sometimes I would be working out, and tears would be running down my eyes. It was like, "Nobody's gonna call anyway, but God damn it if they do, I'm gonna look great."
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Bettye will perform "A Change is Gonna Come" on Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on June 24.


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30 Years of Service . . . and Counting
Twining Village is proud of its 30+ years of service providing exceptional lifestyles and health care to Bucks County seniors. From our origins as a neighborhood community for seniors, our continuing care campus now includes:
- Well-appointed independent living apartment homes
- Spacious stand-alone cottages
- Nurturing personal care community
- Newly renovated health care and rehabilitation center
- Expansive Wellness Center
- Indoor pool
- Community auditorium
- On-site convenience store
- Boutique and specialty jewelry and gift shop
As a not-for-profit, continuing care retirement community, Twining Village delivers the highest quality care and service. We provide our residents and their families with a plan for the future – and peace of mind knowing that compassionate care and support will be available should health care needs change.
Diakon Senior Living
Twining Village is a Diakon Lutheran Social Ministries Community. Diakon is a multi-service, not-for-profit organization committed to offering active seniors the opportunity to enjoy an engaging, meaningful lifestyle in attractive and affordable accommodations, as well as have access to a continuum of health care services and community-based programs.
Diakon also provides a wide range of services for children, youths and families, including adoption, foster care, family counseling and programs for at-risk youths. Each year, Diakon Lutheran Social Ministries serves people of all faiths, offering compassionate service, gracious hospitality and charitable care.
Diakon Mission
In response to God's love in Jesus Christ, Diakon Lutheran Social Ministries will demonstrate God's command to love the neighbor through acts of service.
Our Core Values
All people are unique gifts of God to be valued.
We are responsible to God, the church and society for the use of all our precious resources.
All work that affirms God's creation has worth and dignity.
Teamwork, continual learning and innovation enhance the quality of service.


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|Fun Facts
|Fan Culture
Fun Facts
- YuugenMagan's name means 'Deep Magic Eye'.
- If you look at the center, you can almost see a character in a kimono in the area where YuugenMagan's "energy" meets.
- The kanji for the name of one of Yukari's spell cards in Touhou Hisoutensouku (Demon's Eye "Laplace's Demon") is nearly identical to this character's name (compare 魔眼「ラプラスの魔」 of Yukari's spellcard to 幽玄魔眼(ゆうげんまがん), note the two characters before the parenthesis/bracket in both). Furthermore, it is an attack that summons multiple floating phantasmal eyes to attack the enemy, making it possible that this is a reference of some sort to YuugenMagan.
- YuugenMagan's stage boss has the most hit boxes in the series that affects the same health bar, coming second would be the Prismriver Sisters in Perfect Cherry Blossom.
- She and Mima share the same theme, "Angel's Legend".


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Do you have a film project that needs funding? Have you already created a Kickstarter project for it?
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SPRINGFIELD — Ines Dunlap, a member of St. Alice Church, died June 26. She was 91.
Mrs. Dunlap was born July 29, 1921 in Genova, Italy to Givonni and Ann (Scala) Bisio. She graduated from high school and married Howard Dunlap in 1947 in Springfield. She was a homemaker and worked as a seamstress for the Bon Marche.
She was preceded in death by her husband in 2000.
A funeral Mass will be celebrated at noon, Wednesday, July 10, at St. Alice Church in Springfield.


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I know that some lines include all drinks in the cruise fare. I am searching for a list of those lines.
I just hate to go around having to sign checks and having wait staff with their hands out.
Any assistance will be appreciated.
Welcome to cruise chat. Those would be upscale luxury lines like Regent, Oceania, and Silversea. These cruise lines may also include gratuities, and some shore excursions. You are paying a much higher per diem for the cruise over the mainstream cruise lines like Royal, Princess, Carnival, HAL, Celebrity, and NCL.
Thank you for your welcome and I appreciate your prompt response. My wife and I have sailed on Oceania several times and it is not one of the lines that fall into the group. I think you are correct regarding Regent and Silversea.
Thanks again
I'm pretty sure Seabourn includes drinks as well.
Hi sisteralberta, welcome to Cruise-Chat. The Yachts of Seabourn are all-inclusive. You might check with Azamara, although I'm not sure if it's totally inclusive. Hope you have a marvelous cruise!
Azamara is NOT all inclusive
Seadream is all inclusive
Thanks to everybody for your kind assistance.
Royal Caribbean's two European mainstream lines,Spain's Pullmantur, France's CDF are both all-inclusive as far as drinks are concerned. A knowledge of Spanish or French helps on board.
|All times are GMT -7. The time now is 09:51 AM.


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I agree, especially with the part where if you're low on gold you just go out into the woods, hack up other creatures, and loot theirs. It's highly possible that the concept of the home invasion was pioneered at a gaming table. Also, its reliance on fictional magic and its attempts to get players thinking about the nature of good and evil spawned a backlash from the right-wing Christian set that continues to this day but went largely ignored by people who were already abstaining from original sin even if it wasn't voluntary.
From D&D to data centers
What happens to gamers after a high school career spent stuffed into lockers working up dungeon maps on reams of graph paper? Usually one of two paths, with the obvious exception of the road to entertainment celebrity and deviance: They either opt for a degree in engineering and turn into well-balanced adults, or (like me) they land a completely unmarketable creative liberal arts degree, like a major in comparative Russian short stories with a pot minor, and from there straight to debtor's prison.
Sadly, the game has gone through multiple revisions since its inception in 1974 through a collaboration between two since-sainted geeks, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, reaching its generally accepted peak in the Advanced 2nd Edition somewhere in the '80s. But in the opinion of many old-school fans, including this demented reporter, it declined from there into a game that minimizes imagination and instead promotes the sale of inscrutable playing cards and action figures with PC cross-over products.
Hasbro, which acquired current publisher Wizards of the Coast in 1999 -- which had, in turn, taken over from the original D&D manufacturer, TSR, in 1997 -- recently announced the impending fifth edition of the game that it says will be optimized for play on multiple electronic devices while still maintaining the original role-playing tabletop flavor. This claim is so ludicrous it might as well be telling midlife-crisis-leaning men that Civil War reenactments are a great way to meet women.
Despite not having played since 1991, I, like many previous players, still suffer from an inability to let go of my D&D Chief Virgin past and have all my locker-scrawled maps, my descriptions of non-existent people and places, and my collection of ubiquitously pneumatic female miniature action figures clad in chainmail bikinis. I'm also inexorably drawn to the mall, like Google to an overpriced acquisition, whenever a new edition comes out, and I spend another $75 and more on core rule books I'll never use. I've stuffed all this into unmarked boxes tucked in a musty attic corner lest Pammy find them and think better of continuing our relationship.
Nevertheless, I credit the game with shaping many of my life choices over the years, which means I should probably burn Hasbro's offices to the ground. But for those few that actually improved whatever situation I was currently wrestling, I'm thankful. Happy anniversary D&D, let's hope you remain analog and Apple never makes an app out of you.
This article, "Happy 40th anniversary, Dungeons & Dragons, from all your grateful geeks," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Follow the crazy twists and turns of the tech industry with Robert X. Cringely's Notes from the Field blog, follow Cringely on Twitter, and subscribe to Cringely's Notes from the Underground newsletter.


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Funny, talented, beautiful....Maybe I don't deserve to meet such an angel. (Not that that could stop me from trying.) That's all I've ever wanted from her; To meet her. To see her up close and /smell/ her. I stole her shirt once, and it smelled like cotton candy. I wonder if she always smells like that. Amanda reminds me of cotton candy; Colourful, sweet and bubbly.
I'll bet my laptop her hair is much softer than any fluffy sugary treat. What I wouldn't do to run my fingers through that silky mane. Call me obsessed, but I know that I'm in actual love. I wouldn't even need to live anymore if I could meet her, just once!
Hold still for a minute, I can't chase you forever. (But you know I'll try.) I won't kiss you unless you let me. Amanda, please....
AN This has been in my head for a long time, and I'm so glad to have finally written it. Somehow I doubt anyone still looks in the Amanda show section, unfortunately....T.T


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Athree-inch ring binder cradling the pitch to end this city's 11-year Super Bowl drought rests neatly on a book shelf in Jay Cicero's corner office along St. Charles Avenue.
Not that its intended audience, NFL owners, share a desire to peruse the minutiae of game-day operations for the Super Bowl.
"There's a lot of tabs," said Cicero, head of the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation. "They wouldn't be interested in all that information."
The league's 32 owners awarded the Crescent City, revitalized after Hurricane Katrina gutted and flooded her in August 2005, its record-tying 10th chance to host the game after a 15-minute presentation in Miami four years ago.
At the time, it was a gift for the city's recovery, a nod to the game's heritage and a practical incentive for the Saints, city and state to pour $300 million into renovating the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Now, the host committee formally voiced Monday a not-so-veiled intention to bid for the 2018 Super Bowl — coinciding with its tricentennial celebration.
Under the league's current structure, New Orleans wouldn't be invited to bid until October, and a final vote wouldn't be cast until May 2014. Yet the city believes its chances are burnished by a depth of experience hosting major events, compact size of its metropolitan area, nearly $ 1 billion in infrastructure upgrades and the waning trend of using its game as an enticement for franchises to build new stadiums.
"We don't have to create anything in New Orleans," James Carville said. "It's been here for 294 years. We just have to take what we have and shine it up a little bit."
The process
Now, back to those binders in Cicero's office — the one with copious information more relevant to the NFL's Special Event staff.
NFL owners do care about those facets of a city's bid, but they need it distilled succinctly. Presenting it in a palatable manner is also part marketing and lobbying.
Feting owners isn't new, either. Once, Tampa offered them a golf outing, flying in legend Arnold Palmer to hand-deliver each owner a putter. Miami promised access to yachts during game week. Dallas simply plunked a $1 million guarantee for all the league's game-day expenses.
Four years ago, New Orleans took full advantage of the process, too. On May, 1, 2009 the sports foundation mailed its bids to owners in handmade wooden boxes fashioned from locally harvested cypress. It was embossed with a custom logo for New Orleans' motto: A Perfect Ten.
"We're in this hunt, and we need to impress them," Cicero said. "We leave no stone unturned."
Inside, three colorful binders with covers made of painted canvas outlined the bid: an introduction to New Orleans, the NFL's bid specifications and letters of recommendation from local dignitaries. Housed, too, inside was a small drawer containing an iPod with a 21/2 -minute video overview.
The arms race stemmed partly from an open application process, one where committees could engage in a last-best bid atmosphere.
Two years ago, the NFL changed its process, though. Instead of an open process, the league now invites a few stadiums — usually two — to submit proposals.
The new structure is relatively straight-forward when it comes to the 15-minute final pitch made before the owners, meaning no longer could former Dallas quarterback Roger Staubach make a pitch, as he did in 2007 for North Texas' 2011 bid.
"They're trying to keep it to a business presentation," Cicero said. "The owners are always stone-faced."
That's why it's beneficial working in close coordination with the Saints.
"I never stop bringing it into conversations, or I'm taking notes," Saints Vice Chairman Rita Benson LeBlanc said. "I'm with the owners. They're influenced by their own families and their own experience."
The committee
Don't fret.
The death knell of the Good Ole Boy method might be a boon for New Orleans moving forward, largely because of how it approaches the bid process.
The city is well-versed in hosting major sporting events, using it as a pivotal focal point in marketing its hospitality and convention industry.
The sports foundation is the main arm, and it tries to space out major events such as a Super Bowl in five-year intervals. In between, Cicero's group fills in its calendar with events such as the annual New Orleans Bowl, the SEC men's basketball tournament, junior Amateur Athletic Union Olympics and even a BassMasters Classic.
"We may do up to 15 events in between a Super Bowl," Cicero said. "Our model is much more efficient, but it's what we do."
Compared to New Orleans, other cities organize their efforts with the Super Bowl as the lone goal.
Dallas hired a real-estate developer, George Bayoud, as its bid committee's president. Bayoud and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones recruited Staubach as chairman. The committee found Houston-based lawyer Robert Dale Morgan, who had helped that city land the 2004 game, to assemble the rest of the group. It forged ties with civic leaders from Dallas, the North Central Texas Council of Governments and the Dallas Convention and Visitors bureau.
However, it's only a four-year partnership.
"Three months after the event, though, they disband and disperse," Cicero said. "They have no entity. That staff is back out hunting for other positions."
Meanwhile, New Orleans' sports foundation continues to visit other cities and keep copious notes.
The cost
The city's experience also allows a leaner bottom-line relative to recent hosts.
Dallas' bid put up roughly $40 million and netted a $7.5 million surplus. Indianapolis' bid came in around $30 million. New Orleans' original projection hovered around $12 million in 2009 and may land somewhere closer to $13 million when all is said and done.
"There's an economy of scale and expertise with us that you don't always get in other cities," Cicero said.
The simplest explanation is the city's bidding for the Super Bowl projects what services it can provide to the NFL at no cost, with the figure comprising the final amount.
Again, New Orleans' size stands in contrast to other cities, such as San Diego, which required 1,000 buses to ferry people to Qualcomm Stadium. New Orleans only required 240. That's still a lot, but it's one example of where it can pare expenses because NFL personnel can easily cover ground walking.
Last year, the sports foundation took note of how Indianapolis' compact size allowed its stadium, convention center and entertainment district to fit into an area the size of the French Quarter.
But Cicero and his staff also noted how the majority of fans not staying in 5,000 downtown hotel rooms had to commute up to 90 minutes away. It's a point they could contrast with New Orleans' layout, which puts 22,000 hotel rooms, the Superdome and the French Quarter within a one-mile walking radius.
"Get crazy," said Mary Matalin, a political consultant and host committee member. "You can walk everywhere."
"More appropriately, you can stumble," Carville said.
The current price has risen sharply from the $5 million New Orleans plunked down to host its previous Super Bowl in 2002, but the sports foundation thinks its expertise has blunted inflation.
"We're just a lot more resourceful," Cicero said. "It's less expensive here, but those elements make it so it's only $13.5 million to fulfill all the obligations in the bid."
The infrastructure
The bid doesn't represent the total cost to remain in the growing rotation for the game.
Estimated figures show the roughly $1 billion in permanent infrastructure upgrades to the city since an antiquated levy system failed during Katrina and swamped 80 percent of the city and left portions 15-feet under water.
If anything, luring the Super Bowl back served a dual purpose.
"It was an attempt to use the Super Bowl to build infrastructure," New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said.
Louis Armstrong International Airport underwent a $365 million makeover. The city opened a new, $145 million Loyola Streetcar line to ferry passengers between the Union Passenger Terminal and Canal Street.
Yet, the biggest facet was overhauling the Superdome and most importantly $85 million in work completed last fall.
"You have to build from the 50-yard line out, and that's to make sure the Dome was really kind of kicking," Landrieu said.
The money helped overhaul the lower bowl, adding 3,100 seats in the process. The concourse was expanded, while additional concessions and restrooms were installed.
Premium ground level plazas, each roughly 7,600 square feet, also were built under the east and west concourses. Featuring granite countertops, a plethora of flat-screen TVs and full-service bars, they can host roughly 4,5000 fans.
And LeBlanc didn't couch what was in mind when the upgrades were discussed.
"Everything top of mind was making sure we were Super Bowl-ready," she said Monday.
The NFL didn't veil its desire to see the site improved three years ago, either. Commissioner Roger Goodell said at the time that New Orleans was a "great Super Bowl city," but the Superdome needed to match sparkling new venues in Indianapolis, Dallas and New York.
With the mandate met, New Orleans is positioned to blunt a challenge down the line from a new $1.2 billion stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., for the San Francisco 49ers and the Minnesota Vikings' planned $975 million facility.
"The advantage of a brand new stadium has been taken away with the renovations of the Super Dome," Cicero said.
The soul
But sitting in front of reporters, among the 5,200 credentialed this week, Carville declared the crux of any argument put forth by New Orleans.
"We needed minimal intervention," he said. "How do you have a place with more history, more beautiful, such a setting to have an event like this?"
Phrased another way: Who does it better?
"It is the preeminent global sporting event, and there's no other place that hosts it like New Orleans," LeBlanc said.
Serving as host this week is a clear billboard, too, that New Orleans covets it as a chance "to plant a stake in the ground and show what's happened here is real and lasting," Cicero said.
It's why 17,000 volunteers signed up and why Landrieu said visitors will feel "the unconditional and undying love" for their city.
"What you will come away with is a profound sense that the people of New Orleans have found that very thing Americans have been looking for a very a long time, in terms of resilience," Landrieu said.
The success of the Saints in recent seasons and the connection, resurrected with the reopening of the Superdome in 2006 and deepened with a Super Bowl title, certainly helps.
"That's odd to say," Cicero said. "Sports aren't more important than education, aren't more important than housing, but it gave us this positive thing amongst all this negativity to latch on to."
Practically, it helps that the NFL has a mid-market team — the Saints were valued at $965 million in 2011, according to Forbes — flourishing financially and making a commitment to their on-field product.
Additionally, owner Tom Benson's service on the league's financial committee and close ties to the Super Bowl committee position the organization well to funnel feedback to Cicero's operation.
"Owners respect his take on the overall business of being associated with the NFL," Cicero said. "He's pretty sharp when it comes to that."
Ambitious as it might be to pursue a Super Bowl for the 11th time, Landrieu said the city's nature ordains it.
"You continue to doubt New Orleans' capacity to play at the top of its game," he said. "When this came along, you said can't they do this again. New Orleans continues to outperform expectations again and again."


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Northern Iowa's decision to pull out of this year's Prime Time League, reducing the league from six to four teams, comes at an interesting time.
The spotlight shifts to the Iowa players, who have the Hawkeyes' program on a clear upswing based on current results and future prospects.
Eight returning and five incoming Hawkeyes lead the quartet of 10-player rosters for this year's PTL series, which begins tonight at the North Liberty Community Center.
Since UNI coach Ben Jacobsen elected to keep the Panthers close to home in Cedar Falls — utilizing expanded coach-and-player contact as allowed by a new NCAA rule — PTL director Randy Larson reduced the field by two teams.
"Before, we had about 30 past and present Division-I players, and now we've got about 20, so there's still five a team," Larson said. "The actual competition will be exactly the same talent level — perhaps a bit higher, because now it's all Iowa players, and man for man, the talent level is probably higher than what the UNI level is."
Everybody from the 2011-12 playing rotation (except Matt Gatens and his fellow graduated seniors) which guided Iowa to an 18-17 record will descend on North Liberty. Zach McCabe, Melsahn Basabe, Aaron White and Devyn Marble, who each played in all 35 games last year, are spread out among the four selected teams.
Larson, coach of the Vinton Merchants/Mike Gatens Real Estate squad, made waves with the first overall pick Wednesday: Jarrod Uthoff, a recent Wisconsin transfer who can't talk to Iowa coaches until Aug. 20.
He insisted the pick was based on a past relationship with Uthoff, not a statement he could outplay the likes of White or Basabe or incoming freshmen Adam Woodbury and Mike Gesell. The former three-star recruit from Cedar Rapids Jefferson will sit out next year and pay his own way per Big Ten rules.
"Not only is this the fan's morsel, but how about him? You think he's hungry?" Larson said. "He goes to Wisconsin, spends a whole frustrating year watching them underachieve, knowing he could have helped them, decides it's not his system, comes back and embraces Iowa even though they have not said one word to him."
Under the six-team format, two games previously would be played at once in separate gyms. Now, fans can catch every exhibition, which will continue each Sunday afternoon through July 22 and culminate with the championship game Tuesday, July 24.
"When Coach (Steve) Alford was first hired and Jeff Horner, Adam Haluska and Greg Brunner were all Iowa-born heroes, there was very high interest (in PTL)," Larson said.
"But I don't know if there's ever been as much interest as there is now. Sometimes you have to be down a bit before you can really love the highs."


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Tom Flanagan responds to critics with Persona Non Grata: The Death of Free Speech in the Internet Age
For more than two decades, University of Calgary political scientist Tom Flanagan was an ultimate insider in Canada's conservative movement.
He was once chief of staff and director of operations for then Opposition leader Stephen Harper and the Conservatives' national campaign manager.
A regular commentator in the national media with frequent CBC appearances and columns in the Globe and Mail and the National Post, Flanagan was also a top adviser to Danielle Smith, the right-wing leader of Alberta's Wildrose party.
Then, in February last year, his comments about child pornography turned him into a pariah.
In response to a question put to him during a public lecture on the Indian Act at the University of Lethbridge, Flanagan said that he had no sympathy for child molesters, but mentioned having "grave doubts about putting people in jail because of their taste in pictures".
He revealed that in the past, he had been on the mailing list of the "National Man/Boy Love Association", which was "the closest" he had ever come to child pornography.
"It is a real issue of personal liberty to what extent we put people in jail for doing something in which they do not harm another person," he said at the time.
First Nations activist Arnell Tailfeathers posted a video of the comments on YouTube under the incendiary tagline "Tom Flanagan okay with child pornography". His comments were condemned in a tweet from the Prime Minister's Office as "repugnant, ignorant, and appalling", and a media firestorm ensued.
Flanagan has written about his online mobbing in a new book, Persona Non Grata: The Death of Free Speech in the Internet Age (Signal). In an interview at the Georgia Straight office, he insists that he's not "okay" with child pornography.
Still, he was denounced and dismissed by Smith, whom he considered a close friend. B.C.'s most powerful cabinet minister, James Moore, demanded that he be fired from his position at the University of Calgary, whose president also criticized him. No high-profile academics publicly defended him, though he says his union did a "terrific job" in resolving internal problems at the university.
Flanagan seems unperturbed as he discusses the politicians' responses to his comments. With a professorial demeanour and an almost Mr. Spock–like detachment, he suggests there's a "general epidemic of ruthlessness" in politics.
"Maybe the reasons are different for different persons, but I think it's ultimately destructive," Flanagan says. "It may in fact help you win short-term political victories, but the price that you pay if you treat your own people like that is you find it harder and harder to recruit top-quality people."
He cites Harper's firing of his former chief of staff, Nigel Wright, as another example of this ruthlessness. Wright was canned after he secretly gave Sen. Mike Duffy $90,000 to repay questionable expenses.
"What future Nigel Wright is going to say, 'Hey, what a great chance,' to be chief of staff to this prime minister?"
The Straight asks Flanagan how he ended up on a man-boy love association's mailing list.
He replies that the problem originated in the early 1990s, when he chaired a Reform Party of Canada committee that was created to keep white supremacists and neo-Nazis out of the party.
To try to identify these people, he subscribed to the Heritage Front's Up Front magazine in his own name. "I wanted to keep tabs on them," he explains.
Later, the magazine published a fake article under his byline.
After he objected, he says, the white supremacists offered up "some smart-ass reply" but refused to correct the record.
"So the conclusion I drew was you can't deal personally with any of these fringe organizations," he states.
Flanagan explains that three or four years later, he began receiving mailings from neo-Nazi groups in the United States and Great Britain, as well as a newsletter from the man-boy love association. He assumed that his name was sold to these groups when the Heritage Front ran into financial trouble.
"So, when I started to get this avalanche of mail, I just said, 'Well, it'll pass.' So I just received it and tossed it."
Flanagan says that the most important part of his book deals with "moral panics", which have cropped up repeatedly in history, including during the Salem witch trials, the Nazis' condemnation of Jews, and the McCarthyite crusade against Communists.
In Persona Non Grata, he points to three overlapping moral panics from the late 1970s to the early 1990s that influenced the evolution of child-pornography legislation.
They concerned growing fears of satanic abuse of children in daycare centres, widespread reports of adults experiencing recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse, and stories of organized rings of pedophiles—all of which, he says, were blown vastly out of proportion but left the impression that children were extremely vulnerable to harm from evil forces.
He mentions that an inquiry costing $15 million was held to investigate claims of a pedophile ring in Cornwall, Ontario, which never turned up any evidence.
"Pedophiles do sometimes distribute child pornography among themselves, but that high level of organization was never shown," Flanagan tells the Straight.
He emphasizes that he supports criminalizing child pornography.
"I do think it creates a climate for the sexual exploitation of children that we don't want," he says. "The question is: what is the appropriate punishment and, also, how do you define it?"
Anyone in Canada who accesses child pornography is subject to a minimum term of six months in prison on an indictable offence or 90 days in prison on a summary conviction. The Harper government has introduced legislation to "stack" mandatory minimum sentences for those convicted of child pornography.
Flanagan maintains that his opposition to mandatory minimum prison sentences for accessing child pornography resembles the position of U.S. Republican senator Rand Paul, who may seek his party's presidential nomination.
Flanagan also claims that because the Canadian legislation "casts a very wide net"—including visual representations, written material, and depictions involving sexual activity or advocating sexual activity with anyone under 18—a case could be made that Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov, or a stage production of Romeo and Juliet could conceivably result in charges being laid.
"Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, she's only 13," Flanagan points out. "There have been modern productions of Romeo and Juliet that show sexual activity between the two of them. Shakespeare didn't, but sometimes modern interpretations do. They're probably open to prosecution under this, too. I mean, we don't know how the courts would interpret the art defence."
Harper comes under fire
His book includes some stinging criticism of Harper, claiming that the prime minister "can be suspicious, secretive, and vindictive, prone to sudden eruptions of white-hot rage over meaningless trivia, at other times falling into week-long depressions in which he is incapable of making decisions".
"I was tired of all the psychodrama, and I feared, as I still do, that he might someday bring himself down Nixon-style by pushing too hard against the network of rules constraining authority in a constitutional government," Flanagan writes. "The Senate scandal of spring 2013, in which the prime minister's secretive management of a small issue turned into a major embarrassment, was exactly the sort of thing I have long feared might happen."
In speaking to the Straight, however, Flanagan has positive things to say about Harper, particularly in his ability to satisfy the interests of libertarian conservatives and social conservatives.
Flanagan explains that Harper was "personally opposed" to same-sex marriage and thought it was unnecessary.
"But when it was clear that it was a political loser [to continue opposing], he used a free vote in Parliament to get the monkey off his back," he says. "On abortion, right from the beginning he has said that he won't bring that up."
Flanagan notes that Harper has mollified social conservatives and kept the coalition with libertarians intact with the party's tough-on-crime agenda.
"At the beginning, I thought there were some changes that needed to be made in our criminal-justice system," Flanagan admits. "I think we were unduly lax in returning some really dangerous people to the streets, and so forth. As time has gone on, it has extended to things like [a mandatory jail sentence for] six marijuana plants and the compulsory prison term for viewing child pornography. Who knows what's coming down the pipe further? I think it's pushed too far. But if you asked me politically, Harper has done actually quite a remarkable job of holding that coalition together."
Flanagan describes himself as a "Hayekian", in honour of 20th-century libertarian economist Friedrich Hayek, but adds that he's been drummed out of all conservative parties in Canada.
"I still call myself a conservative with a small 'c', but on this particular issue of criminal offences and punishment, I have become more and more skeptical of where the government is going with this."


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Would you like to save as your currency permanently or for this visit only?
Spanish Military Hospital Museum
The Oldest House
The Palmbreeze room was clean and very comfortable. Nice decor. Friendly staff, easy check in and check out. Breakfast gave both of us a horrible stomach ache. We're normally not sensitive to any type of food nor do we have any food allergies.
The bed was extremely comfortable. The staff were attentive, and without being reminded remembered after our first morning that one of our party did not eat meat (and prepared subsequent breakfasts without meat).
Lovely place, quaint, breakfast room very nice with delicious food and 40's music, Chelsea and Katie are wonderful. We'd stay again. Also sweet cat lives there. My guy is a big guy. Shower a little tight for him. Shower soap too small. No box of tissues. Didn't get in the way of our enjoying the place.
How fresh and clean the room was and smelled. The Jacuzzi tub was amazing and the double shower head a dream!!! The room had an amazing view of the water and adorable gazebo. It had a cute garden and lots of places to cuddle up or relax. The late chick in at 3 and the early check out at 11, I just wanted to stay forever.
Comfortable Room Fantastic Location Accommodating Hosts Decent Breakfast Breakfast was not to the standard I would have expected for the price. The room lacked space to store travel bags so they were in the way. Staff was not available for help at 9:00p even when I left a message on their reservation phone number.
The inn was in a perfect location and perfectly kept. But the best of the stay was the perfect hosts who provided the perfect amount of engagement and assistance. Will go back many times in the future for sure. It was all just PERFECT.
I don't like saying everything was great but this is one if those rare places where in felt welcomed and all was just great!
The home feeling, service, and privacy
Very beautiful! The staff were nice and very helpful. The food was delicious! The only problem I encountered was that the pillows were too hard for me to be comfortable. We got there too late to ask the staff for other pillows- I'm sure there would have been another option available if we were there early enough to ask!
The rooms were very nice. The staff was extremely accommodating and friendly. The breakfasts were delicious. The packages were very nice as well. My only complaint about this hotel is that parking is very limited and we had to park a couple of blocks away.
Complementary breakfast at a four-star, don't normally see that Nothing
This charming Inn is located in an excellent location, only a few blocks from the district, a short walk that takes you thru the real historic St. Augustine. The Inn and its staff are extraordinarily accomodating and exceed expectations on all levels. Everything from sherry on the mantle in our room, an upscale breakfast reserved usually for 5 star Inns, to incredible staff prepared deserts served after you return from dinner out, all at no additional charge. If you are expecting ultra modern this Inn is not for you. If you value serenity, impeccable cleanliness, charm and location you won't be disappointed. The St. Francis is on top of our list for St. Augustine revisit.
Loved the location...walking distance to most of sites in area. We love the staff...very helpful on sites to visit. At end of day we enjoyed sitting outside on the patio. One night it rained and we sat on the balcony. Nothing to do with the Inn, when walking back at night the road is uneven. Be careful.
We booked a room at the St. Francis Inn for a few reasons - great reviews, great price and it's haunted! (unfortunately, we saw no evidence of any haunting...maybe next time...) We were on a 2nd honeymoon - 1st time away from the kids - and it's an awesome area - a very easy walk to everywhere, great food and great weather. The inn is very nice, it was quiet for us, very clean and the service is awesome! All of our requests (Any de-caf coffee? Could we get a bowl of popcorn? etc...) were handled quickly and with a smile. The staff was very knowledgeable and enjoyed talking with guests. The amenities were great - free breakfast (very good food!), free beverages throughout the day, cookies in the afternoon, appetizers/cocktail hour and desserts later in the evening. Its a good thing its located in a walking city, to help burn off some of the tasty calories they serve! They also have a pool (closed when we were there, though,) a beachhouse to park your car at for a day at the beach, and free/discounted admission to a few attractions. We loved our stay! If a 'con' is required, and the reason for 4 out of 5 stars for the 'room quality', it would be the tv. Just a small set in the room. They DO have current DVDs to borrow and free wi-fi, so that was nice. We didnt watch alot of tv, but we wanted to catch a bit of a football bowl, and it just would have been nicer on a bigger set. We had daily housekeeping, they recycle, and they have a parking lot (I guess that's a rarity with these historical-town inns...it was nice to be off the street!) All in all, if we get back to the area - the St. Francis Inn is where we'll be staying!


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Our spreader cheese knife is designed to cut and spread soft cheeses. Knife features a hand-hammered carbon steel blade and handle crafted from reclaimed cherry wood. The exposed blade tang is set into the handle with two brass pegs, ensuring the blade will never bend or break away. Knife measures approximately 6" in length.
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|Captain Jeff Struecker
Army Ranger
Black Hawk Down (GOM, 2008)
Jeff Struecker served with distinction as a Lead Ranger in the Black Hawk Down rescue mission in Mogadishu, Somalia, and was prominently featured in the book upon which the movie "Black Hawk Down" was based.
He served for ten years in the 75th Ranger Regiment. During this time, Struecker competed in the David L. Grange Best Ranger Competition for three consecutive years. His efforts culminated with a first place finish in 1996. He also served as an Assistant Instructor of Military Science at the University of Louisville and was recognized in 1998 as the US Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) Noncommissioned Officer of the year.


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By Jason Offutt
Americans love tea. Just don't say this in front of someone from the U.K. or you may receive a sound scolding.
We consume 1.42 million pounds of tea every day. We drink more than 65 billion servings of tea every year, and since 2011 the United States has imported more tea than the U.K. Half our population, 156.9 million people, drinks tea each day.
Despite the size of the U.K. compared to the United States (it is slightly smaller than Colorado, with far fewer unemployed hipsters), people there consume roughly the same amount of tea as we do, which is a hell of a lot for 62.7 million people. But their love for tea has never been in question. Ours has, and frankly, still is. The problem lies in what Americans call tea.
About 85 percent of the tea we drink is iced tea, but you won't find any of that in the U.K. London native and professed tea lover Sally Harrild told me chilled tea is an American thing. "No one here drinks it iced," she said. As comfortable as I've become in London, at that moment I felt particularly foreign.
People in the United Kingdom drink their tea hot, and although many Americans do as well, we apparently don't do it right.
Walk into any U.S. restaurant and ask for hot tea, and you'll get a cup, a tea bag and a small metal pitcher of hot water. Pour the water into the cup, wait for the water to turn brown and drink. This is, of course, wrong.
"The water should be boiling," Harrild said, then paused and shook her head. "The water has to be boiling."
British author George Orwell, when he wasn't busy writing books junior high school students would one day be forced to read, created a list of rules on making proper tea.
The list – which includes using a ceramic teapot, boiling over direct heat, drinking from a teacup, and avoiding sugar unless you're a wimp – had two big rules:
1. Only use tea from India or Sri Lanka. not Chinese tea. "There is not much stimulation in it," he wrote in his essay, A Nice Cup of Tea. "One does not feel wiser, braver or more optimistic after drinking it. Anyone who has used that comforting phrase 'a nice cup of tea' invariably means Indian tea."
2. Make it strong. The tea needs to be as volatile as acid. "It's too weak, damn it. I'm trying to lay the groundwork for democratic socialism here; I don't have time for sleep – ever. Seriously, I'm tripping. Has anyone seen my car keys?" Orwell didn't write this, I just assumed.
The second reason Americans can't fix proper tea is that we don't know what to put in it. Sugar? Lemon? Whiskey? Sure, but we hardly ever add milk. The British do and, like everything else, they enjoy arguing about it. "There's some debate on the best way to put milk in tea," Harrild said.
Does the milk go in the cup before the tea, or after? How did Orwell do it? Like Harrild, he added milk after.
When it comes to tea, I listen to the British. Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan once conquered "the known world," but that was like pushing the wimpy kid out of the sandbox compared to the British Empire's colonial period. For 346 years the British owned a quarter of the entire world's landmass and not only taught a lot of countries how to play cricket, they discovered every single thing there is to know about brewing a cup of tea.
I can't tell you a thing about cricket, but I can now make a proper cup of Earl Grey.
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Cameroon's geographical position together with the diversity of habitats makes it uniquely varied, accounting for over 900 species of birds recorded in the country. From the sahel in the extreme north of Cameroon to the forests of the southern mountains, we are presenting below the variety of habitats and the variety of birds found.
The Waza national park, south of Lake Chad offers the best introduction to the birds of sub-sahel zone. The park is a landscape of acacia savana and grasslands dotted with imposing inselbergs. Birding in Waza can be truly spectacular and the possibilities include the following: Red-necked Buzzard, Black Scrub-Robin, Chestnut-bellied Starling, Red-pate Cisticola, Lavender Waxbill, African Swallow-tailed, Kite, Sudan Golden Sparrow, thousands of doves, weavers and queleas, Ostriches, Arabian bustard,quail plover, swallow-tailed kite, bee-eaters, Fox Kestrel, Pygmy sunbird, Sennar Penduline-tit, River Prinia, Herons, etc. Waza is also home to large mammals such as elephant, lions, giraffe, red-fronted Gazelle, Patas monkey, Warthog, etc.
Another national park of great importance in the north of the country is the Benoué national park. This area is rich in Stone Partridge, Red-throated bee-eater, Violet Turaco, Adamawa Turtle dove, Red-winged Gray Warbler, Grey-headed olive-back, the remarkable Crocodile bird, etc. The Benoué park is also home to large mammals such as the hippopotamus which abound. Further south at the Ngaoundaba ranch near Ngaoundéré, the highlights are Oriole Warbler, white-collared Starling, the Brown-chested Lapwig, thrush Babbler and the threatened Bamenda Apalis. The following birds too are to be seen: African Golden Oriole, White-breasted and Red-shouldered cuckoo-shrikes, Square-tailed Drongo, Schlegel's francolin, Double-toothed Barbet, African Black Duck, Blue-breasted Kingfisher, Red-headed Lovebird, Temminck's Courser, Gray Kestrel, Sun Lark, Olive-bellied, Yellow-crowned Bishop, Marsh Widowbird, Gray-heade Oliveback, and many others.
The three highland areas in the southwestern corner of Cameroon offer the rare endemics. These are the Bamenda highlands, the Kupe and Bakossi mountains and Mount Cameroon. The Bamenda highlands are home to several endemic birds including the rare and endangered Bannermans Turaco, Bannermans Weaver, and Banded Wattle-eye, Mountain Robin-Chat, Cameroon greenbul. On the Kupe Mountains, you will search for the Serle's (Mt.Kupe) and Green Beasted Bushrikes, Green Longtail, White-throated Mountain Babbler, and Ursula's Sunbird. Mount Cameroon is the highest mountain in the whole of West and Central Africa. This mountain offers wonderful forest birds including the Mount Cameroon Francolin, Cameroon–pigeon, Mountain sawing, White-tailed Warbler and the Cameroon Sunbird.
The Korup National Park is a remarkable and the oldest primary forest in Africa. It contains a wealth of bird, animal and plant life unequaled in West Africa. This park has excellent trails which are reached after crossing the suspension bridge which was opened and crossed by Prince Charles of England. This park is home to the Grey-necked Rockfowl or Picathartes which attracts birders from all corners of the world. With the help of local guides and camping in the forest, this bird crowns the birding trip to the region. Other highlights in the Korup park are Forbe's Plover, Black Dwarf, White-crested hornbills, Black-casqued, Yellow casqued, Red-billed Dwarf, Blue throated Roller, Blue Cuckoo-shrike, forest Robin, gray's, Red-vented, Woodhouse Antpecker and Rachel's malimbes.
We suggest the following duration of stay to enable the birdwatcher reap maximum benefits from his Cameroon tour:
- Waza national park: 2 days
- Benoué national park: 2 days
- Ngaoundaba ranch: 2 days
- Bamenda highlands: 3 days
- Mt. Kupe ans Bakossi Mts: 4 days
- Mt. Cameroon: 2 days
- Korup National park: 4 days.
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The Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC) administered the Hurricane Ike Housing Recovery Program to repair or replace homes damaged as a result of Hurricane Ike, which made landfall September 13, 2008.
Housing recovery services for qualified property owners included:
NOTE: Galveston and Liberty counties and the cities of Galveston and Houston administered their own programs. Contact information for the county and city programs can be found at the General Land Office Disaster Recovery Housing Sub-Recipient webpage.
Information on housing and other assitance programs is available here.


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West Coast Maintenance, a division of West Coast Charters, recently opened a repair station in a newly built 30,000-sq-ft hangar on Daugherty Field in Long Beach, Calif.
According to Gary Standel, president and director of operations for West Coast Charters, the new facility expands the company's maintenance capacity and opens it to the public. West Coast Charters, founded in 1987 and based at John Wayne Airport (SNA) in Santa Ana, has been providing charter service to destinations throughout the Americas and the Caribbean.
"I developed a passion for flying at a very early age," Standel told AIN. "I never saw flying simply as a means of transportation; every takeoff was a remarkable experience. Aviation was always going to be my career."
Standel said he began providing charter service for local Orange County developers and businessmen with one turboprop. "In 1989, I was granted a multi-aircraft air carrier certificate and augmented the West Coast Charter fleet with two more turboprops and two new pilots. Later that year, we added our first turbojet, a Cessna Citation V, to the fleet."
"The company enjoyed steady growth so I kept reinforcing our fleet and hiring new pilots," Standel explained. "By 1991 it made sense for us to establish our own in-house maintenance department and the benefit of doing so helped us maintain our growth profile. As a result, in 1995, we signed a 20-year lease on our space at the south end of John Wayne Airport."
Aircraft Management
In 2001 the company introduced its Fractional Shares Program with an eye toward providing a stepping stone from aircraft charters to ownership. The fractional fleet continues to grow and currently includes four King Air B200s and one King Air 350. Standel said the company saw it as a progressive step that mirrored its expanding role in the industry, but the continued growth required yet more space to support it.
"Last year, we leased a state-of-the-art 30,000-sq-ft hangar in Long Beach," Standel said. "The new hangar, in conjunction with the John Wayne Airport facility, gave us the capacity we needed. Today, West Coast Charters provides an end-to-end solution including aircraft charter, fractional shares, aircraft sales and acquisition, aircraft maintenance, hangar storage and aircraft management services."
Standel said the aircraft management business ranges from providing a total turnkey package to specialized, individual services. "We will tailor a program to fit the client's profile, including obtaining insurance, storage, maintenance, providing flight crews and record keeping," he said.
"We specialize in making sure your aircraft remains an asset and doesn't become a burden. As an additional tool to offset some of the cost of ownership, we can charter a client's airplane, when they're not using it, to existing clientele," he said. "We charge only a modest monthly administrative fee to cover accounting, advertising and marketing costs then send the client a monthly report detailing activity along with the charter revenue collected."
Extending Maintenance Capability
Standel said while the company's maintenance function began in support of a five-aircraft Part 135 operation, the fleet expanded to 27 aircraft and helped the company build maintenance expertise. "Maintenance helped our aircraft owners reduce the cost of ownership," he said. "That led to some opportunities opening up during the past two years that resulted in our maintenance expansion and the acquisition of the Long Beach facility."
The company still maintains a 17,000-sq-ft maintenance facility at SNA, but it is a line maintenance facility for its charter fleet. "We have two technicians there currently, but we're going to expand that to eight by next year," Standel said.
Although the company is located in a densely populated, aviation-rich part of the country, Standel sees a need for specialized maintenance facilities that can support flight departments. "Our target area for the Long Beach facility is everything west of the Rockies," he said. "It is a $2 million investment in personnel, equipment and facilities but it is also a great opportunity for us. There is still tremendous growth potential in this area, and we anticipate this expansion will bring in significant amounts of new charter and parts business."
Standel said the West Coast Maintenance facility in Long Beach has about 15,000 sq ft dedicated to maintenance. An additional 3,000 sq ft is set aside for an avionics shop, parts storage, office space for personnel, a conference room and a reception area.
"We currently have 15 maintenance personnel in Long Beach of whom about eight are licensed mechanics or technicians," Standel said. "We are definitely in hiring mode and want to expand to a seven-day schedule offering two overlapping 10-hour shifts per day. The goal is to be open 18 hours a day, all week long. To do that we feel we need to have 20 mechanics." The company already has an FAA designated authorized inspector on staff.
West Coast Maintenance is an FAA-approved Part 145 repair station. The facility's long history with King Airs gives it an edge in that market as it does all inspections, five-year items and removes/replaces engines to send out for overhaul. The company also offers aircraft detailing.
"While we've been working on King Airs for a long time, we also have a lot of expertise on Learjets, Challengers, Citations (500 and 650 series), Westwinds, Falcons and the Astra. All are on our certificate," Standel said. "And we've just recently sent one of our technicians to school and have begun taking care of a Gulfstream 450." The company also plans to add Gulfstream GIV capacity by the third quarter of this year.


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D&D Random Treasure Generator
by: Whatentar Software • 2
All Android applications categories
by: Whatentar Software • 2
D&D Random Treasure Generator provides dungeon masters with the ability to quickly come up with treasure chest contents for 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons campaigns.
Designed as a D&D DM Tool for both coming up with a quick random magic item and coming up with entire treasure parcels, D&D Random Treasure Generator can help the would-be DM whether they are in the middle of a campaign and need some quick loot for a wandering monster or are in the planning process and want to come up with a list of possible magic items.
One great way to use this DM tool in the planning stage is to roll for a treasure parcel and use the result as a template, possibly substituting out some of the magic items in preference for items more suited to the particular set of adventurers.
NOTE: D&D Random Treasure Generator only works with ***D&D 4th edition rules**. The magic items listed will all conform to D&D 4th edition, with a source indicator which details the exact book where the item can be found.
This app is part of D&D Tools: Random Encounters, which also includes random monsters and encounters in addition to random treasure. (If you have D&D Tools: Random Encounters, there is no need to get this app.)
Tags: d&d magic item generator , d&d 4e magic item generator , dungeons and dragons treasure generator 4e , d&d 4e treasure generator , 4th edition magic item generator , d&d treasure parcel generator , d&d 4e treasure parcel generator , dungeons and dragons , d&d character builder 3.5
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Get free shipping on your next order when you spend over $100. The discount will be automatically applied to your purchase; no promo code required. The subtotal of your purchase must be $100.01 or greater after any promotional discounts have been applied. Additional fees such as tax or shipping and handling do not apply toward your minimum subtotal requirement of $100.01. Offer applies to standard shipping only. Certain items that require additional shipping and handling are excluded from this promotion and do not apply towards your $100.01 subtotal minimum. Offer subject to change.
For those who prefer their bags a little more rough and tumble, but still completely refined, feast your eyes on this suede drawstring backpack. Beautifully distressed suede and streaming leather straps bring an element of edge to this otherwise mannerly carrier, comfortably scaled for everyday use. Carry on.
This product ships from the maker within 7 days, via USPS
If you're not happy with this item for any reason, you may return it for a full refund within 14 days.