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Manufacturing Sponsored by
The cultural phenomenon surrounding the principles of modern beauty is everywhere—from the airbrushed billboards illuminating cityscapes to the advertisements that make their pitches on mainstream TV and online. It's an element that dominates every aspect of the contemporary aesthetic—even in what we see on the shelves of supermarket aisles, pharmacies and boutiques.
Body image is one of the many powerful driving forces behind ad campaigns, media productions and politics, and it even penetrates its way into the domestic sphere. No wonder, then, that the beauty industry is valued so highly globally and that beauty products are often marketed as essential for healthy living and improved quality of life. And ad design and packaging play a pivotal role in fueling this thought process.
When it comes to image, in the past, the beauty industry tended to be big on showing consumers how to discriminate for the "best," often defining which specific body types, classes and ethnicities were considered desirable and thus setting a trend for the public to follow. This may still happen to some extent, but the industry also is widening its lens more and more.
Package design addresses this in two different ways—on the one hand, companies can adhere to specific, rigid requirements, and beauty products are imaged with young, slender, glowing women with luminous features and a toned physique, including well-maintained skin, hair and teeth. Portraying these women as enjoying a heightened quality of life is often essential, with some designers foregoing the sexy, pouty look for a blissfully happy expression, appealing directly to the mainstream.
However, other beauty companies wishing to engage in other measures of advertising take a different approach on their design, instead focusing on women of varying sizes, shapes, races and ages. This follows suit with wider trends for natural beauty, natural beauty products and more global concepts of beauty, and, therefore, the new focus is founded on the basis that "real women" shouldn't have to feel displaced by the so-called mainstream concepts of beauty standards.
What is particularly interesting about products marketed with this approach is that they range from a detailed to minimalistic design, conveying a more "natural" feel and using fresh yet subdued colors and a casual phraseology that is written in simple typography.
Besides aiming to readjust the defining principles of beauty, it also suggests that beauty is attainable and that every woman has the potential to shine no matter what their features.
It's a drastically different story for beauty products geared toward the male population. While female beauty products are often excessively feminine and are, for the most part, bright, bold and utilize scripted typography, products for men usually couldn't be more obviously masculine. The design and imagery for male-targeted products often attempts to appear masculine to an extreme—as it should never be mistaken for a woman's product.
To serve an extra helping of potent masculinity, several products—particularly deodorants—feature bold, striking colors (usually dark, often metallic) to imply they are powerful enough to handle a man's physique (versus the lady-like insistence of pleasant odors to counter perspiration) as well as upper-case, block fonts. Gentler overtones can be found in the sleeker, more refined packaging of men's hair gel, for instance, a clear venture into the suggested metrosexuality that accompanies the desired image of the male.


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Eating ramen noodles will never be the same...
For a great selection of film, comic and TV action figures and collectibles, check out BigBadToyStore.com, BriansToys.com, ToyWiz.com, PastGenerationToys.com, Urban-Collector.com, ToyDorks.com, MonkeyDepot.com, HobbyLinkJapan.com, and Sekaido.com.
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Kotobukiya, the same company that brought you the innovative Star Wars Lightsaber Chopsticks, is at it again - this time bringing the popular anime Evangelion to the culinary world. Now you can eat sushi or Chinese take-out with style, as Rei Ayanami (orange) and Shinji Ikari (purple) steer the chopsticks around your food, although results may vary!
Each chopstick measures nine inches long and passes all food safety tests. The chopsticks themselves are clear and can take some getting used to due to their smooth texture, especially if you're accustomed to wooden chopsticks.
The sculpt on the miniscule pilots is fairly well done but the globs of paint I imagine are the most difficult to perfect. But judging it from these photographs is definitely unfair, as our human eyes wouldn't be able to notice the detail.
Each pair of chopsticks will cost approximately $12 and there's more characters on the way. Visit Kotobukiya's web store to pre-order Asuka Shkinami Langley (red) and Mari Illustolius (yellow). Rei Ayanami and Shinji Ikari are now available in specialty stores and online.
Review and Photography by David Yeh

subset: commoncrawl


text: Garden Guru: Mother Nature's untrained children will take over By John Porter June 29, 2013 Story Share John Porter A wall of Japanese knotweed grows uncontrolled along a railroad right of way on Chesterfield Avenue in Kanawha City. John Porter The jointed red stems of Japanese knotweed make some think it is related to bamboo. John Porter A young empress tree towers over its roadside neighbors. John Porter Tree of heaven rises above a tangle of Japanese knotweed. CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- I've received some concerns from other gardeners about a big problem, and I must admit that I have the same concerns. So, I'm just going to flat-out ask you. Do you have problem weeds in your garden?A while back, I discussed ways to reduce the weeds in your garden. Now, when we talk weeds, many sources say "a weed is a plant out of place not intentionally sown, whose undesirable qualities outweigh its good points."Some gardeners are adamant weed warriors, using any means to keep the leafy intruders out of their lawns and gardens. Other gardeners have a more relaxed attitude. "At least it's green!" some gardeners exclaim, while others praise the edible qualities of some weeds such as nettles and dandelions. "A dandelion's worst enemy," says my TV friend John Marra, "is an Italian with a knife." (He speaks from experience.)I'm not talking about your run-of-the-mill weeds though. I'm talking about hard-to-control, noxious, downright nasty weeds. These are Mother Nature's untrained children run amok.We've grown accustomed to some of our old stand-by noxious weeds such as multiflora rose and kudzu. But there are newer, more noxious weeds that could be living right under your nose. The best advice I can give is to catch the problems early, before they escalate out of proportion. Cut them down; remove them; kill them out.The following noxious plants will, in fact, take over your yard in no time flat, refuse to be killed out by most means, and grow faster than you can even imagine. The following three plants are on the top of my enemies list. These plants are not your friends. You have been warned.Japanese knotweedJapanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica) has quickly become an enemy to many gardeners. It has hollow, jointed stems much like bamboo, but is in the Polygonaceae family with rhubarb rather than a grass like bamboo. It can grow up to 12 feet tall, though here it usually grows in the 4- to 6-foot range. It spreads through underground rhizomes, which makes it difficult to eradicate. Pulling it up just seems to propagate new plants -- just like the heads of the Hydra in Greek mythology. Keeping it mowed down can weaken the plant, but complete control through mowing would require years of consistent mowing. Applying a glyphosate herbicide to post-mowing new growth in the fall offers the most consistent control. Even then it might take a few rounds of fighting to knock this pesky plant out. Empress treePaulownia tomentosa has a way of seducing gardeners into giving it a home and even treating it like it belongs in the landscape. Unwitting gardeners will be surprised that what they think is a giant sunflower with giant leaves starts growing again the next year. The tree grows as much as 8 to 10 feet per year and can go from seed to mature, blooming tree in just a few years. The blooms are huge, purple and pretty, which is why you can still buy these plants in certain garden catalogs.But those blooms give way to prickly, messy seedpods full of seeds bent on domination. They find maintained lawns and gardens an excellent place to set up shop. It amazes me to drive through the area and see people treating these beautiful monsters like they belong in the landscape, with careful pruning and care just like other trees. These trees spread to choke out native trees and plants, though, so they earn a spot on my enemies list.Tree of heavenAnother noxious tree with a cute name, tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima) is an opportunistic species that outcompetes native trees and fills in forest canopies faster than other trees can grow. Its name comes from the fact that it does reach for the heavens so quickly. It resembles sumacs and other trees, so folks might not know that they have an enemy in their midst. This tree propagates both by seeds and by roots.Its secret weapon is ailanthone, an allelopathic compound that it releases from its roots to kill any competition that finds its way into the root zone, much like black walnuts do. Its roots can also find their way into cracked sewer and water lines.This tree does, however, have a good side (when it is not in your yard or forest): It grows well where other plants do not, such as acid mine drainage fields and mine sites. It tolerates shockingly low pH levels, absorbs sulfur dioxide through its leaves, resists cement dust and coal tar fumes, can live in high-salt and low-fertility soils, withstands drought and will suck up mercury from the soil. In other words, it is a survivor. When the world ends, there will be only cockroaches and Ailanthus altissima. • • • I will be giving workshops at the upcoming Mountain State Art & Craft Fair in Ripley on how to grow more food (and in less space) to save time and money. I will present "Making the Most of Your Garden Space" at 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. July 5 and 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. July 6.John Porter is the WVU Extension Service agent for agriculture and natural resources in Kanawha County. He may be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com or at 304-720-9573. Twitter: @WVUgardenguru. Story Share Story Share Trending Now 1 City of Milton tries to revive Morris Memorial property 2 Books and Brews expanding to Charleston's West Side 3 Former Boone school board members indicted 4 Morgantown coal operator Laurita indicted in alleged campaign finance scheme 5 Kanawha Parks Commission sells former Sandy Brae tract False eyelashes: Tools, patience produce the long-lash look Previous Story Live Life Fully: How can you stop obsessive negative thoughts? Next Story


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Frank Kvitta feat. The Horrorist by Frank Kvitta
My new release Electronic Pleasure – Frank Kvitta feat. The Horrorist is now No.
5 1 on the Junodownload sales chart. It will hit Beatport, iTunes and everywhere else next week. The remixers include Richter, Ben Sims, Dave the Drummer, Submerge, Patrick DSP, Alex Kvitta, Mario Ranieri and DJ Rush! It's a dark sex trip track. Keep it away from your kiddies.
"I want you to do what I want you do to. I want to look at you as you look at the floor." – The Horrorist
Update: Now at #1 on the Junodownload sales chart!
Download now: Junodownload


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This story is unreal, completely hilarious, and might make you lose faith in the media's ability to provide you with real facts. Worth the long read:
Notre Dame's Manti Te'o, the stories said, played this season under a terrible burden. A Mormon linebacker who led his Catholic school's football program back to glory, Te'o was whipsawed between personal tragedies along the way. In the span of six hours in September, as Sports Illustrated told it, Te'o learned first of the death of his grandmother, Annette Santiago, and then of the death of his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua.Her passing, recounted so many times in the national media, produces no obituary or funeral announcement in Nexis, and no mention in the Stanford student newspaper.


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suttametta wrote:Mkoll wrote:suttametta wrote:Buddha said all 12 links are unreal.
Hi SM,
Can you explain what you mean by this and provide a reference if possible?
Thank you.
His famous saying, see the world as foam.
I take that to mean he's saying to develop a perception as a strategy for gaining insight. He's not making an ontological statement, which is the interpretation that I pulled from that sentence.


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Think outside the crayon box the next time you want to get creative! Crayons are mostly used for coloring, but there's so much more moms and kids can do with them! Add some paper, glue, and other household items to the mix, and opportunities are endless. We found 11 cool crafts with crayons you don't want to miss. Grab the kids and some crayons, and get crafty.
Image Source: Whatever . . .


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Every time someone is reported to have done something racist and all his or her friends begin hollering that good ole George or Paula isn't "a racist" as if that is the worst, worst thing in the world one person could call another, I want to bang my head on the wall.
For starters, can we quit worrying about who's a racist and start talking about the effects of racist acts and words? I think we'll get further in changing people's behavior. A person who doesn't intend anything bad can still do a bad thing. I can step on your foot without setting out to do so. The fact that I didn't plot it with malice does not change the pain I cause when I do it, and i fact, I should look where I step. At the very least I should remove my foot from your instep immediately!
Jewish tradition has a lot to say about unintentional sin: we call such a sin a "chet," using a term for a missed archery target. Chapter 4 of Leviticus prescribes the proper offerings for atoning for such sins when they have been committed against God. Treating another human being with disrespect or discrimination, even if we do so unintentionally, is such a sin against God, because all human beings are created in the image of God. Someone who calls our sin to our attention (because obviously we didn't know about it, it was unintentional) is doing us a favor, giving us a chance to redeem ourselves.
These days, with no Temple available for purification or sacrifice, the remedy for sin is teshuvah. (For a description of how to go about teshuvah, check out "The Jewish Cure for Guilt.") Defensiveness will not work: defensiveness makes these things worse, not better. When I argue that a person who is bringing an unintentional sin to my attention is hallucinating or malicious or "playing the race card" I am missing the point and compounding the error. Those who rebuke me are letting me know how my actions or words came across, and now it is up to me to correct that — with teshuvah.
Secondly, the effect of my words is not limited to the hurt feelings or sensibilities of the listener who speaks up. My words effect all the other people who hear them and who may therefore decide that speaking that way is OK. We teach others with our actions and our speech, not only our children but also other adults. We teach when we fail to speak up about offensive language – when I let something pass, I give it tacit approval. When racist behavior and attitudes are as socially unacceptable as the n-word, we'll be making real progress.
If I did not intend for my words to teach racism, how much more important is it for someone to let me know that that's what I communicated? My intent has been obscured by clumsy words, and the words are teaching evil – better fix them, and fast!
Full disclosure: I was born in Tennessee in the mid-1950's. My parents are white and during my lifetime, the family has been very prosperous. The only minority experience of which I was aware in childhood was that of being a Catholic in the very Protestant-Christian Southeastern US. I knew lots of African Americans as a kid, but until I was fourteen, all of them were domestic servants or manual laborers. My parents were open about thinking segregation was a good thing back in the 1960's. I lived in an environment where I heard the "n-word" all the time, and the only sense I had that there was anything wrong with it was that "nice women don't say that, they say 'colored.'" Before I started school, I was explicitly taught that people with any African ancestors were not as smart as white people, and that "civil rights" was an unAmerican movement.
Thank heavens my parents sent me to school with the Dominican Sisters who taught me, and modeled for me, that treating people of color differently was wrong because all human beings are equal before God.
However, the sisters could not flip a switch in my head so that I suddenly became enlightened and would never do another racist thing or think another racist thought. I have said and done things in my life that make me cringe to remember them. I have done what I can to make teshuvah for those words and actions. I continue to make teshuvah for mistakes I make in the present. I do not kid myself that I will ever completely unlearn what I was taught as a child, but I can make an effort to do better, and to teach differently than I was taught.
My background on the subject is very simple to unpack: I was explicitly taught racism, and I am spending my adult life learning to speak and act and think in better ways. This does not make me a bad person – if anything, it is the mark of a good person that I am trying to be better, but only as long as I continue to grow in Torah and treat other human beings with respect.
I realize that for some other whites, things may be a bit less clear. But it is my observation, with my ears that were tuned as a child to such things, that nobody in the United States is untouched by race. Not a single one of us is truly color blind except for very young children (and there have been studies that show that they learn racism early.). Defensiveness speaks volumes, whether it is a liberal insisting frantically that Clarence Thomas's race is not an issue or a conservative insisting the same about Trayvon Martin. The mantra of "I don't care if they are white, black, green or purple" just underlines otherness, and it reeks of desperation. The key word in that phrase is "they," who are not "us."
By the way – if this discussion sends some readers to thinking about the ways in which you feel that African Americans have been racist, understand that I am not talking about those behaviors. I'm talking only about the ways that whites talk and behave towards African Americans. Switching over to the "reverse racism" discussion is the equivalent of one child on the playground hollering that another started the trouble: it's a ploy to change the subject. I'm talking right now about OUR behavior, not anyone else's, and yes, it's embarrassing and uncomfortable.
Torah calls us to love the stranger, to love those whom we perceive to be different from ourselves. (Leviticus 10:10) The fact that it repeats this over and over again is a mark of how difficult it is to see someone different as a beloved child of God. How much the more so, if we have been programmed to see that person as dangerous, or stupid, or exotic?
Every time we say a blessing before a mitzvah, we say, "Blessed are You, Eternal our God, Ruler of the Universe, Who sanctifies us with mitzvot [commandments]…" We are given the commandments so that we may become holy. We are not required to already be holy, just to do the work that will take us towards holiness. As Rabbi Tarfon used to say (Pirkei Avot 2:21):
It is not incumbent upon you to finish the task. Yet, you are not free to desist from it. If you have studied much in the Torah much reward will be given you, for faithful is your employer who shall pay you the reward of your labor. And know that the reward for the righteous shall be in the time to come.
How will we know when we are finished with the task? When can we congratulate ourselves that we don't need to worry about racism anymore? Not in my lifetime, for sure – I know what's in my head. If the day comes that I don't feel the slightest urge to change my behavior in the presence of a black male, when I don't hear my father's or my grandmother's voices in my head, when I no longer notice that the new friend I made is a person of color I'll let you know. Until then, I'm not done.


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Purdue's potential return to irrelevancy doesn't change IU's irrelevancy.This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
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Purdue's potential return to irrelevancy doesn't change IU's irrelevancy.
"I had to take her down like Chris Brown."
-Lance Stephenson
Whatever you say boss.
All the grave dancing that was done in the IU thread this past week, it's hard not to find this all slightly humorous.
I do yet again feel bad for Hummel though, like I stated earlier. If Painter goes, I hope Hummel gets to follow.
Who knows...all it takes is motivated hard working players and a good coach and some talent as well
Look at the current final 4...
I could see him leaving Mizzou if a top job opens up. But Painter still probably has a lot of connects in southern Illinois so the mizzou job might not be too bad for recruiting for him. As well as getting some Texas products... only time will tell I guess
I think Missouri is actually an exceptionally hard place to recruit, you're putting yourself right in the middle of Kansas, Kentucky, and Indiana.
Now Painter's a smart, savvy recruiter who can spot a solid class and put it together which will help him.
Ladies and Gentleman, your next Purdue head basketball coach . . .
Linc Darner!
Sadly, I wouldn't be surprised if he did become coach. They could really save some money that way.
I'm not a Lavin fan, despite his success this year. I'm not a real big fan of Kevin Stallings, either, but I can see both of them being high up on the list.
Shaka Smart I don't know much about. I've heard good things, and he is from the midwest, but I don't know if you make a long term investment on a guy based on one good run in the tournament. Plus, I doubt if Purdue can even afford him.
Brad Stevens is ideal, and the chance of getting him is probably inversely proportional to that ideal.
I mean Stevens would cost you at least as much as Painter so....
And Smart's VCU team was a CBI Champ last year, plus assistant at Clemson and Florida. I would say he's got a pretty good resume.
Chris Hagan of Fox 59 tweets that
http://twitter.com/chrishaganfox59Despite reports to the contrary Matt Painter will be remaining at Purdue as head coach.
half a minute ago via Echofon
This is madness haha. March's last hurrah apparently.
Anybody else having trouble with Twitter? I got a 'Twitter overloaded' message a minute ago, and JMV on 1070TheFan just said he can't get in.
Too much news going on in the world.
My browser has a twitter feed, but I don't really follow any Purdue news sources.
"Things in Missouri are not as they appear and Painter is staying" - both JMV and Chris Hagan have heard from this same source.
The humorous thing is I've spent most of my work day reading about this and I'm not even a Purdue fan, oh being born in Indiana and growing up with basketball in our blood. What a tangled web we weave for ourselves.
I don't know why any one would believe any one else until either school or Painter himself says something.
Because this is the age of twitter? And if you read it on the internet it must be true!
U can make that same case for PU... UK, OSU, MSU, MICH, IU, ND.... He almost did it here... and there are no other Big schools in Missouri so he should have a good shot at grabbing alot of instate recruits as well
Yeah, but KU owns that region. I mean owns it.
Ya, it is ridiculous.
I would say this is the best source I have heard (says he is staying):
Honestly, twitter makes it impossible to follow anything like this anymore. It's just all conjecture at this point until like you said, someone actually associated with Mizzou, Purdue, or Painter says something.
I just feel like if he was staying it'd be announced by now, unless he's really pushing hard for something specific from purdue.
EDIT: Just saw the above post. What is Purdue waiting for then? Don't they want to end this speculation?
I don't understand any thing about any of this any more.
Peegs is now actually retweeting things that say Painter is staying and he's usually the end all, be all of Indiana college/high school basketball even if I do think he can be a pretentious douche.
Gary Parrish - CBS sports
http://gary-parrish.blogs.cbssports....71764/28153973Matt Painter has rejected a contract offer from Missouri and decided to remain at Purdue thanks to a new and extended contract that has been agreed upon in principle, a source told CBSSports.com on Wednesday.
An official announcement is expected soon.
Painter's decision to remain at his alma mater ends a wild few days on the coaching carousel during which Purdue and Missouri both made very public pleas -- Purdue to try to keep him, Missouri to try to take him -- for the man who has been named Big Ten Coach of the Year in three of the past four seasons. Despite those honors -- and five straight NCAA tournament appearances -- Purdue had been paying Painter only $1.3 million annually. That number ranks eighth in the Big Ten and is among the reasons Missouri believed he could be lured from the place where he was tabbed as Gene Keady's replacement before Keady retired in 2005.
Details of Painter's new deal are unclear, but he's expected to receive a significant raise. His staff will also receive notable pay increases and be afforded a budget to operate like a true high-major program, something that was never the case in Painter's first six seasons with the Boilermakers.
Missouri's search for a new coach will now move on to secondary candidates.
Mike Anderson left Missouri for Arkansas last week.


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"The holidays are so stressful!"
How many times do we hear people say that at this time of year? How often do we say it ourselves?
Probably a lot, and it's understandable. The most wonderful time of the year is also often the most stressful time of the year. Everyone's busy with last-minute gift-buying, parties for hosting, pushed-up deadlines at school and work, and trying to coordinate visits with family and friends. (Driving in the bad weather is also stressful, for me at least. Although if we have another largely snow-free winter like last year, that may not be a problem!)
All these things are part of what the holiday season is all about, and most of us accept that and plan for it. The Christmas season seems to get busier with each passing year, and we often compensate by doing everything faster. Sometimes that's necessary, but in doing that, it's very easy to wear ourselves out and possibly become bitter or cynical about the holidays.
Amid the hustle and bustle that comes hand-in-hand with December, I think it's important to make sure we remember to relax and enjoy the holiday season as much as we can. Part of what makes this time of year so special is the opportunity to unwind and appreciate the company of our loved ones. Since we spend so much of the season operating at an accelerated pace, it's sometimes easy to forget that -- and we shouldn't.
We all love to watch Chevy Chase in the now-classic holiday film National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, as he literally drives himself crazy trying to provide the perfect yuletide experience for his family. While his hapless character is well-intentioned, there's a reason that movie gets so many big laughs -- it's illustrating how silly it can be to try to make everything "just right" during the holidays.
No matter how much planning we do, Christmas will never turn out exactly the way we intend, frustrating as that may be. But if we enter the holiday season expecting to be stressed, I think we probably will be. Conversely, if we resolve to enjoy ourselves as much as possible, I think that can be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
There's a lot going on in our lives at Christmastime, and we usually can't help that --but it will go a long way toward making the whole season calmer and more fun if we remember to cherish the time we get with our loved ones and be thankful for it. And that's an important part of what the season's about.
So have yourself a merry -- and stress-free -- Christmas. As stress-free as possible, at least.
Email: email@example.com
Phone: 330-541-9426


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First hit in books, Grichuk 'enjoying moment'
ST. LOUIS -- On Wednesday, a day after collecting his first Major League single by lining a ball into left field, Randal Grichuk was still waiting to receive the keepsake. He had not, though, fallen for his teammates' prank.
The Cardinals requested the ball after Grichuk's second-inning hit, and it was eventually rolled into the dugout. There it got into the hands of infielder Daniel Descalso, who then flipped a ball into the stands, making it look like he hadn't realized that he was supposed to keep the ball for Grichuk. The execution was impressive. Only problem was, Grichuk wasn't paying attention.
"I got on first and didn't even see it," Grichuk said. "I picked up [third-base coach Jose Oquendo] and didn't even see it. I saw it on the replay after the game. It was pretty fun."
Rumor is that the ball from his first hit is in safe keeping with assistant trainer Chris Conroy. Grichuk said he'll probably send it home to his parents once he finally gets his hand on it.
Grichuk went 1-for-5 while making his first Major League start on Tuesday. He was not in the Cardinals' starting lineup on Wednesday, but the right-handed-hitting outfielder will give manager Mike Matheny an intriguing option against Cubs lefty Travis Wood on Friday. Grichuk was batting .400 against lefties in Triple-A before his callup on Monday.
"I really don't feel like it's sunk in yet," Grichuk said. "With those extra-inning games, coming back, going to sleep, coming back to the field, my family is here -- I haven't really had the chance to sit down and think about [all that's happened]. When that moment comes, I'll see how it feels. Right now, I'm just enjoying the moment."
Jenifer Langosch is a reporter for MLB.com. Read her blog, By Gosh, It's Langosch, and follow her on Twitter @LangoschMLB. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


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Nike Tiger Stripe Crew Socks
Select a size above
Size Chart
Buy Online & Pick Up In-Store
Check Availability at stores near you.
Product Details
If you're the type who thinks white socks are boring, well, who wouldn't agree with you? The Nike Tiger Stripe Crew Socks offer a cool, edgy modern design to make this world a more colorful place and they'll surely spruce up the old, dirty white sock collection.
Besides their bold print, they have an arch-supportive, snug fit that provides warmth and comfort, while their Dri-FIT technology that's incorporated into their wool blend fabric will prevent sweat from being trapped by allowing it to evaporate quickly. Not to mention, feet will love the super soft feeling against skin.
- FABRIC: Dri-FIT 53% polyester/23% wool/22% nylon/2% spandex
- QUANTITY: 1 pair
- CARE: Machine wash
- MEDIUM: Equal to a Men's 6-8 shoe size
- LARGE: Equal to a Men's 8-12 shoe size


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Sahajdhari Ringer Women T-Shirts are an Idakoos specialtiy! Idakoos has many things to offer. Whether you want to get a Sahajdhari Ringer Women T-Shirt for a special occasion, give a Sahajdhari Women T-Shirt as a present or need to represent with a funny Sahajdhari Ringer Tee during Holidays or Family and Friends get-togethers, Idakoos is sure to have the right Sahajdhari Ringer Women T-Shirt for you! Even if it turns out you can't find the right Sahajdhari Ringer Shirt with the perfect design for your mother, father or children (or friends!); Idakoos offers all of its men's women's and children's Sahajdhari Ringer Women T-Shirts as Custom Sahajdhari Women T-Shirts. Personalize any Sahajdhari Ringer Women T-Shirt the way you want to ensure the perfect gift.
Showing 1 - 24 of 106 Women Ringer T-Shirt


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More than 120 areas across the UK are on flood alert with heavy rain set to fall over the weekend.
The Environment Agency increased the number of areas at risk overnight as rain continued for a second day.
While the worst affected places are in the South West, 128 areas across the South East, Midlands, central and northern England, Wales and southern and central Scotland are also on alert. A further 15 areas across the west, as well as in Northampton and Warrington, are expected to flood, the agency said.
Around 30 commercial properties were flooded yesterday in the coastal town of Looe, south Cornwall, as a band of heavy rain swept in from the Atlantic.
Tom Tombler, meteorologist for MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said: "The heavy rain will affect mostly the western parts of the the UK and southern England as well as Wales.
"The risk of localised flooding remains throughout the day, especially in areas which saw heavy rain yesterday. Between 10mm and 20mm is expected in the worst-hit areas. Temperatures will remain milder though, around 10C for most areas."
The heavy rain is expected to stay for the weekend, before a brighter start to the week, he added, although the rain will return on Thursday.
Firefighters praised the speedy actions of three hunters who found a man desperately clinging to a tree following a flash flood. Crews were called to a brook, near the River Exe in Devon, which had swollen to around 6ft deep. More than 12 firefighters helped rescue the man, who was taken to hospital suffering with hypothermia.
The fire service said it believed he had taken a wrong turn while walking back to his home in Exwick, near Exeter, before slipping into the brook.
Sean Faulkner, from Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service, said: "Luckily there was a group of three gentlemen who were out hunting and they heard his cries, because it was in the middle of nowhere, and they raised the alarm. If it wasn't for the swift actions of the men and the crew it could have been a different outcome."


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A gyrocam, a ZX-10R and the Nurburgring
MotoGP-style gyrocams — which stay upright as the bike leans — are helping to bring a new dimension to onboard bike videos. Somehow, ... Read more >>
MotoGP-style gyrocams — which stay upright as the bike leans — are helping to bring a new dimension to onboard bike videos. Somehow, ... Read more >>
Who's qualified to review a liter bike? Grant and I can ride them pretty hard on both road and track, take nice photos and write some ... Read more >>
Sitting down? Good. Swallow your coffee, clear any potential choke hazards, take a deep breath and cover your eyes. Then hit play. ... Read more >>
Make no mistake, the 2011 Kawasaki ZX-10R has one goal and one goal only: to dethrone the BMW S1000RR from its liter bike throne. As ... Read more >>
Wait, brakes slow you down, right? The 2011 Kawasaki ZX-10R's do too, but they should also help you improve lap times by working to ... Read more >>
Flying to New York straight from their first test at Daytona with Team Cycle World Attack Performance last week, Eric Bostrom and JD ... Read more >>
Kawasaki USA has just announced that the mysterious stop-sale on the 2011 Kawasaki ZX-10R will be lifted, identifying the ... Read more >>
We've been reading a lot about offset, or désaxé, cylinders this year, they seem to be the flavor-of-the-month for motorcycle engine ... Read more >>
Yesterday, rumors began to circulate of a possible recall taking place on the 2011 Kawasaki ZX-10R . You know, the superbike that's ... Read more >>
This dyno chart shows the difference between a stock, North American 2011 Kawasaki ZX-10R and one that's had its ECU told to stop ... Read more >>
First, we told you that the 2011 Kawasaki ZX-10R would make 197bhp at the crank (207 with ram air), then we learned that North ... Read more >>
When the embargo finally ended and we were able to bring you analysis of the 2011 Kawasaki ZX-10R without pissing off Kawasaki we ... Read more >>
According to official horsepower numbers published by Canadian Kawasaki, the North American market 2011 Kawasaki ZX-10R will have its ... Read more >>
Superbike design is, perhaps, the least forgiving segment in this industry to work in, because the intense competition and the ... Read more >>


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TURTON FC could no longer be the region's oldest football club - after academics discovered what is believed to be an older club in Manchester.
Previously it was believed that Turton FC, founded in 1871, was the oldest club in Lancashire, as well as claiming to have the oldest football ground in the world.
Now researcher Gary James has discovered a long-forgotten side, Hulme Athenaeum, whose roots go all the way back to November 1863.
The club was founded more than a decade before it was previously thought there were any formally organised football clubs in Manchester – in the same year that the London FA was set up, 150 seasons ago.
Mr James, who carried out his research at Manchester Metropolitan University's Exercise and Sport Science department in Crewe, said: "The club was very much aimed at ordinary Mancunians, which was unusual for the time.
"While football now might be thought of as a predominantly working class sport, typically football clubs in the 1860s were founded by public schools who also set the rules.
"The re-discovery of Hulme Athenaeum challenges that perception."
The findings of Mr James' research have been published in the latest edition of Sport in History in a paper titled: The Emergence of an Association Football Culture in Manchester 1840-1884.
Mr James, a member of the Sports & Leisure History Group at Manchester Metropolitan University, has been actively researching this period for over twenty years.
He uncovered the story of the club through extensive research at archives across the country.
He says that in some ways we now know more about the nine years of Hulme Athenaeum's existence than we do about the formative years of Manchester City and United.
Because they were the only club in the area in the 1860s, Hulme Athenaeum were forced to travel to find opposition in Sheffield and elsewhere – and it was this position as trailblazers that may have ultimately led to their collapse in the early 1870s.
Sheffield FC claims to be the oldest football club in the world still in existence.
Mr James said: "In the 1870s several prominent football clubs, most notably Turton, were developing in Lancashire and there was a very vibrant football culture, with lots of teams playing against each other, but in the 1860s that didn't exist yet.
"With a lack of local competition Hulme couldn't survive, and rugby remained the dominant sport in Manchester."
Although their existence was short-lived, the side did contribute towards the growth of football culture in Manchester.
Many Hulme members went on to help form the second club, Manchester Association FC, and remained involved in football via subsequent teams in Manchester.
And in the mid 1880s, one of the Hulme Athenaeum founders, John Nall, was a key figure in the development of the Manchester FA who made a huge difference to the growth of the game in the region.
As for Turton, the side previously known as the first in Lancashire, Mr James said: "Hulme's story should not reduce the significance of Turton.
"Turton may not actually have been the first club, but they do remain very important pioneers in the development of the game."
Mr James will be talking about the formation of Hulme Athenaeum and the early years of Manchester football at the National Football Museum on Friday 28th March at 1pm.
The talk is free but tickets must be booked in advance. Details here.


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Moderators: Timko, Fritz, Solty, Booter, Blake_T, Frank Delicious
DRDYE wrote:Ebay thread???
Check these out...
one custom DR DYED working wall clock(cobra 178g), and another sweet DR DYED disc, a Roadrunner 175g.
jiwaburst wrote:DR DYE,
your stuff really reminds me of the Ukranian (and other Slavic peoples') egg dying that I do. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pysanka
Was wondering whether you had any folk art background influencing your designs?
Interesting...I have never seen anything like those eggs!!! Very detailed and cool looking, I bet they take awhile to do!!!
Mark Brunner wrote:No biggie! So many people on ebay today complain if items are not shipped the same day they pay for them. Like everyone has no lives and does nothing but sit on a computer and drive to ship items.
I will leave positive feedback when I do get them though!
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The Food and Drug Administration has extended the deadline for comments for specific parts of the two Food Safety Modernization Act rules the agency has published.
The new deadline for comments relating to "information collection provisions" will be accepted until May 16, the same deadline for all other comments relating to the food safety rules. That's three months past the original deadlines for those comments, according an FDA news release.
The proposed food safety rules focus on growing/packing procedures and measures to prevent problems in food processing facilities.
The extension is due to two requests for more time, according to the FDA.
Written comments can be faxed to: Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, OMB, Attn: FDA Desk Officer, 202-395-7285; or e-mailed to firstname.lastname@example.com. All comments should be identified with the title of the relevant proposed rule, "Standards for the Growing, Harvesting, Packing, and Holding of Produce for Human Consumption" or "Current Good Manufacturing Practice and Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Human Food."


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Amas To Present A Free Musical Reading of A GOOD MAN 11/3-4
Amas Musical Theatre (Donna Trinkoff/Artistic Producer) will present free staged readings of A Good Man, a new musical with music by Ray Leslee, and book and lyrics by Philip Goodman, directed by Jerry Dixon. The readings will take place on Thursday, November 3 at 4:00pm, and Friday, November 4 at 1:00pm and 4:00pm, at The Snapple Centre, 1627 Broadway, NYC, NY.
A Good Man, based on the novel by the late Jefferson Young, tells the story of Albert Clayton, an African American sharecropper in post-World War II rural Mississippi, where blacks are leaving for the urban north in droves. Albert, proud of his work and accomplishments, resists the trend and, upon learning that his wife is pregnant, decides to fulfill a dream to fix up and put fresh white paint on his shabby tenant house. He encounters a firestorm of criticism and resistance for this presumption, and not only from the locAl White community.
A Good Man, says Amas Artistic Producer Donna Trinkoff, "is a beautiful, honestly written musical story about quiet grace under enormous pressure, and it's so deceptively simple that it rings starkly true and with great impact for all of us. Grace is powerfully evident in the character of our hero, whose "white house" is a vision of what life might be, were he to fulfill his right to pursue his dreams. Philip S. Goodman's taut book and lyrics are miracles of quiet dignity. Surprises abound, and they seem inevitable in retrospect, yet we never see them coming. Ray Leslee's powerful music cultivates seam upon seam of blues and devotional tradition and nuance, and we not only hear these songs, we almost feel and smell them ... moist, rich, dark, and life-giving."
Tony Award winner Nikki M. James (Book of Mormon), John Jellison (Memphis), Bob Stillman (Grey Gardens) will join Joshua Henry (Tony nomination, The Scottsboro Boys) as Albert Clayton, Cheryl Alexander (Dreamgirls, Little Ham), Jeremy Gumbs (The Scottsboro Boys, The Lion King), John Jellison (Memphis, All Shook Up), Anastacia McClesky (Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Hair), and Kenneth Robinson (Baby It's You!). Director Jerry Dixon's multifaceted career includes performance (Once on this Island, 5 Guys Named Moe), and music and lyrics (Laugh Whore, An Evening with Mario Cantone). He has directed regionally on both coasts. Jason Michael Webb music directs.
The presentations are part of the ongoing Amas Six O'Clock Musical Theatre Lab, a development series for writers, lyricists and composers to mount staged readings of their new musicals free to the public. The Amas Six O'Clock Musical Theatre Lab is supported, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, and by the ASCAP Foundation Irving Caesar Fund, the BMI Foundation, the Barbara Bell Cummings Foundation, the Dramatists Guild, the Lucille Lortel Foundation, the Edith Meiser Fund, the Shubert Foundation, and through the generous support of many individuals.
A Good Man, a free staged reading of a new musical written by Ray Leslee and Philip S. Goodman, directed by Jerry Dixon, music direction by Jason Michael Webb, presented by Amas Musical Theatre as part of The Amas Six O'Clock Musical Theatre Lab, on Thursday, November 3 at 6pm, and Friday, November 4 at 3pm and 7pm, The Snapple Center 1627 Broadway (at 50th Street)
FOR RESERVATIONS EMAIL firstname.lastname@example.com or CALL (212) 563-2565
VISIT www.amasmusical.org


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Words of Wellness: Health Benefits of Black Tea
As cooler temperatures set in, it's natural to want to cozy up with hot cup of something. Pumpkin coffees and sweet apple ciders are festively flavored, but they also contain high amounts of sugar and fat that can wreak havoc on your skin, teeth, and waistline. A 20-ounce pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks contains a whopping 470 calories, 15 grams of fat, and 62 grams of sugar - up to 1/4 of your recommended daily intake! Instead, reach for a cup of tea to help you warm up, wake up, and amp up your health this fall.
Given all of the health benefits of tea, it's no surprise that it's the second highest consumed beverage in the world after water, though different countries and regions enjoy different types of tea. The Spa at Paradise Point recently partnered with local company Tea Gallerie, which gathers exotic blends from China, Japan, Nepal, Tibet, Indonesia, and South Africa. Their newest collection showcases the health benefits of black teas from these destinations while still delivering fall's favorite flavors.
Studies have shown that the health benefits of black tea include:
- Antioxidants prevent cancer
- Boosts immunity
- Protects lungs from cigarette smoke damage
- Reduces risk of stroke
- Combats bacteria linked with tooth decay and gum disease
- Lowers cholesterol and regulates blood pressure
- Prevents plaque build-up in the arties
The most common types of black tea include earl grey, English breakfast, and chai, but Tea Gallerie has hand-blended some unique combinations for fall like coconut cacao, apple caramel almond and, of course, pumpkin spice. No matter which tea you pick, get the most health benefits from your black tea by skipping the milk or creamer, along with iced or decaf versions. All of these diminish the health benefits of black tea.
Now go grab a cup, and drink up!


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VMware vSphere Web Services SDK Documentation
Community | Technical Papers | Knowledge Base | SDK Support | Downloads
vCenter Storage Monitoring Service API [Experimental] Documentation
VMware provides an experimental storage monitoring service that runs in conjunction with vCenter Server to provide reporting-level services about storage. The VMware vCenter Storage Monitoring Service API (SMS API) is an experimental API packaged with the VMware vSphere Web Services SDK that enables developers to pull together reports about storage consumption with just a few lines of code.
vSphere Web Services SDK Documentation | vSphere Web Services SDK 4.1 Release Notes
Prior to release, the vCenter Storage Monitoring Service was called Storage Management Service. The documentation uses both names interchangeably.
Last updated 11May2010


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Xbox 360 Games
Get your entertainment fix with games designed for the Xbox 360 gaming system. It doesn't matter if you're into action games, Kinect games, shooter games, fantasy games, sports games, racing games, or party games – at Microsoft, we have everything you need to keep the whole family entertained.
Explore other terrains, take control of a battle, race your way to victory, and become the hero. You can do all this and more with our Xbox 360 games. Shop Xbox games and discover a new level of adventure. Every game has a brief description and reviews, so you can see if it's something you'd like to play.
Get the hottest new releases or popular games that have been out for awhile. Pre-order new Xbox 360 games and you'll receive them on release day without having to leave the comfort of your home and hassle with long lines. If a game is already released, take advantage of Microsoft's free shipping and free returns policy.
If you're looking for even more bang for your buck and a way to get the whole family involved, browse our suite of Xbox 360 Kinect games. The Kinect delivers the latest in technology by allowing your body to become the controller. Jump in with both feet – and both hands! – to enjoy hours of whole-family entertainment.
To see whether a game is suitable for everyone, look for the E rating on each game's information page. Check out the Entertainment Software Rating Board's ratings guide for more details on deciphering video game ratings. We also list the reasons for the ratings, including any violence, language, mature themes, drug references, and more.
Take control of your entertainment with Xbox 360 games across a variety of genres. At Microsoft, you'll find the latest and greatest releases, so check back frequently for updates. Here, you can also find competitive pricing on Xbox 360 consoles and bundles, which save you more in the long run. Start shopping – and saving – today at Microsoft!


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Town of Frisco recognized for sound financial reporting for fourth time
January 3, 2013
The town of Frisco has received a award for its comprehensive annual financial report. The Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada awarded the certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting to Frisco for its comprehensive annual financial report ending Dec. 31.
The achievement is the highest form of recognition in the area of governmental accounting and financial reporting. The award is judged by an impartial panel to meet the high standards of the program, including demonstrating a constructive "spirit of full disclosure" to clearly communicate its financial story and motivate potential users and user groups to read the report.
This is the fourth year in a row that Frisco has won the award.


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Perils of an Overbought Market
Not surprisingly, in view of the steady advance for the entire month, the action on Monday gave the impression that it had run into difficulty that may turn out to be the start of a long-anticipated and stubbornly elusive pullback. In the last few days, the already very overbought indicators, such as the spread, the volatility index, the longer-term Arms Index moving averages and the low volume have become even more so as the market edged higher.
Now the shorter-term Arms Index numbers have joined the parade, as we see on the second chart, below. The five-day is overbought, and the 10-day has offsets coming up that are likely to also put it in the overbought category. If the advance is not yet over some pulling back, it is certainly extremely likely. This is not a time to be buying, in my opinion. Any sign of weakness would look like a time to move to the short side....228 more words left in this article. To read them, just click below and try Real Money FREE for 14 days.
There's no substitute for a trading floor to get great ideas, so Jim Cramer created a better one at Real Money and blogs there exclusively. We then added legendary hedge fund manager, Doug Kass, with his exclusive Daily Diary and best investing ideas. Staffed with more than 4 dozen investing pros, money managers, journalists and analysts, Real Money Pro gives you a flood of opinions, analysis and actionable trading advice found nowhere else, and allows you to interact directly with each expert.
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Joyce works on bunting, hitting to left side
SARASOTA, Fla. -- Matt Joyce hit in the leadoff spot against the Orioles on Wednesday night in Port Charlotte and came away with a bunt single to the left side of a shifted infield.
Such a tactic could prove invaluable to Joyce this season.
"I think it's just going to open the field a little bit," Joyce said. "It's just going to change the way they play defense against me. I even did it three or four times last year. It's not something I'm shy to do, or don't want to do. If the opportunity is there and it presents itself in the situation of the game.
"I want to play the game the right way and get on base. So for me, it's something I've worked hard on. And I'm having fun with it."
Rays manager Joe Maddon noted what putting down a few bunts could do for Joyce.
"Probably would mean at least 15 points in his batting average, which would bring up his on-base percentage," Maddon said. "I don't know how many points it means in regards to your confidence. And then beyond that, and again, it's how the other team reacts, regarding how they perceive things what they want to do with their defense.
"Even more than the bunt, a hard ground ball to the left side would totally open up their minds to re-adjusting. I just like the idea that he's playing the game right now."
Joyce would like nothing better than to step up to the plate and see the defenders playing him straight away because hitting into an infield shifted to the right is not fun for a left-handed hitter.
"Oh man, it's annoying," Joyce said. "It's very, very frustrating. It's heartbreaking. You hit one hard and it's right at someone. You just don't want to be labeled as that one particular hitter."
Thus, Joyce is working on hitting balls the other way, too.
"Obviously that opens some more holes for me," Joyce said. "I've been hitting a lot of balls the opposite way, and I'm starting to take pride in that. But that's what it's going to take to get that average back up to where I want it to be."
Bill Chastain is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


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The Slammy's and Tribute to the Troops and more
by, 12-14-2011 at 09:48 PM (3817 Views)
The Slammy's
What a joke. None of the matches were all that great except the Fatal 4 Way between, Ziggler, Bryant, Ryder and Rhodes. If you haven't seen it, watch it. It was really good. But honestly the biggest joke of all wasn't who got the Awards or the matches. It was the lack of crowd reaction to some of the legends who made their opinions.
Seriously, the crowd should be ashamed. You can teach your kids a little of the history of the WWE/WWF. Show them some of the older matches. I mean, YouTube...Hello. When people like Lita or The Million Dollar Man don't get a reaction, you pretty much fail as a fan. Just sayin'.
Tribute to the Troops
This has to be my favorite show of the year. This years though was even more exceptional than before. Here are a few reasons why.
The match quality this night was the best I've seen in a non-PPV in a long time. How many botches were there. I could count them on 1 hand, and K2 wasn't even the one who made them. It was Maria Menounos who did that, but it was expected. She isn't a wrestler. What a shock.
For the first time at one of these, they advanced the story lines adequately enough to be very entertaining.
Cole and King were entertaining for the first time. Cole still got to be heel, and not overdo it. King wasn't as rambunctious as usual but still could act like a teenager when the Divas came out. This is how it should be all the time.
Oh, and a Drew McIntyre sighting doesn't hurt. Although, it was a shame that it was a squash match.
In all though, I can't help but feel that the actual crowd itself is why the performances were spot on. When you play in front of the military, it has to be spot on.
All in all, this will continue to be my favorite show of the year. I like it more than Wrestlemania. ***Gasp***
Diva's Division
I've tried to defend the Diva's division when K2 was the title holder, but I don't know if I can now. It is a joke. The Divas division is a sham. Really. The Divas of Doom angle is all but hurt now. It was a believable concept but with them losing all the time, it just killed the angle. The only "Barbie Doll" who can do a good job in the ring is Eve Torres. This division need wrestlers who can A: Wrestle or B: Can show improvement if they can't wrestle too good IE: Eve.
That is all I've got for now. Enjoy. Be kind in your comments.


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Topic: PDT
Is PDT available at most cancer treatment centers for cc?
cholangiocarcinoma.org :: Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation Discussion Board
a resource for patients, friends, caregivers and loved ones.
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|La fundación de colangiocarcinoma (CCF) ahora ofrece servicios de traducción en Español.
Por favor publique sus preguntas en Español y un intérprete le va responder.
Join our new Mentoring Program
A new discussion board experience is coming this September!
After 10 years, we're upgrading our discussion board to a new modern system. The new forum will be easier to use, mobile-friendly and loaded with new features! We'll be taking all of the existing posts and users over to the new board, you won't have to do anything. If you have any questions, we've started a thread here to discuss.
Is PDT available at most cancer treatment centers for cc?
What is your location? My understanding is that PDT is not approved by the FDA so I think it is harder to find here in the U.S. I assume you already saw this article in the Medical Updates section but, if not, here is the outside link:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/ … 041508.php
PDT was never offered as an option by my mother's doctors but I called the Cancer Treatment Center of America because we are in Chicago and they have a facility in Zion, IL , and they said they do not offer it there, they offer it in Tulsa.
Another member, Mark, sent his Mom's records to the Univ. of Virginia to see if she was a candidate, see the following post:
http://www.cholangiocarcinoma.org/punbb … hp?id=1658
And here Stacie talks about a possible PDT study at MD Anderson:
http://www.cholangiocarcinoma.org/punbb … php?id=559
Hi Patty,
Thanks for the info. I'm in the Atlanta Georgia area. I had unsuccessful liver resection surgery at Emory University Hospital on August 11. Tomorrow I'm going to the Winship Cancer Institute at Emory, seeing Dr. Kauh. It is my understanding he is the expert in the Southeast for liver cancers. So far I have no jaundice, and my appetite is so-so. Still getting over the surgery and general anxiety over this thing have really wrecked my appetite.
With all the information I am finding how do I know which treatment is best for me?
Thanks for your help.
Unfortunately, we don't have the answers for this darn cancer and your question highlights exactly the problem with trying to find a cure for this cancer, it seems that no 2 cases are alike and no 2 doctors treat it alike. It is very difficult to make treatment decisions and not feel like it is a guessing game and not have regrets.
The rock star on here is Jeff and people post all the time asking him about his treatments and really it seems like what he has been through is almost like an obstacle course or one of those mazes you have to try and find your way out of or like picking door #1, 2 or 3.
To add to the mix, not sure if you saw it but people are singing the praises of sirspheres and theraspheres, see:
http://www.cholangiocarcinoma.org/punbb … hp?id=1318
The information expressed is not medical advice. The discussion boards are not intended to replace the services of a trained health professional or to be a substitute for the medical advice of physicians or other healthcare providers. Read the full disclaimer.


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Ockimey known for bat speed, power
The Red Sox continued their pursuit of power bats in this year's First-Year Player Draft by nabbing left-handed-hitting slugger Josh Ockimey with their fifth-round selection on Friday.
The first baseman, a senior at Ss. Neumann Goretti High School in Philadelphia, was ecstatic to learn he was taken by the Red Sox.
"Just been drafted to the Boston Red Sox!! Thank you to everyone who's helped me get here!! #REDSOXNATION," he tweeted.
Just last week, Boston's scouting staff watched intently as Ockimey lofted balls off the Green Monster with an opposite-field stroke, and then turned on pitches and rifled them over the bullpen in right-center.
"He's got a really good swing for Fenway," said Red Sox director of scouting Amiel Sawdaye. "There's no doubt there's going to be some learning curves and bumps in the road when he goes out, but really, what we said about [Michael] Chavis and [Sam] Travis, power is a commodity in this game, and to be able to go out and buy that power and be able to take a chance on a big kid like that who is a pretty good athlete, and also has good instincts for the game, that's something we were excited about in the fifth round."
Ockimey impressed Boston's brass in a pre-Draft workout at Fenway last November.
"He's a fun one," said Sawdaye. "You can kind of see, as big as he is, he still has a lot of youth to him. You truly believe that this kid, he hasn't gotten his man strength."
The Draft concludes on Saturday, with exclusive coverage of Rounds 11-40 beginning on MLB.com at 1 p.m. ET.
Ian Browne is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, Brownie Points, and follow him on Twitter @IanMBrowne. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


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After a bit of tweaking over the season start, here's the bag I'll be taking to the European Champs in August. Any thoughts?
1* Champ Firebird
2* X-Predator
1* Star Wraith
2* DX Valkyrie
2* DX Gazelle
1* KC Roc
3* DX Roc
Throwing Putters
1* S Wizard
1* Omega SS
Putting Putter
1* Aviar Classic


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Cantaloupe growers, packers and shippers in California say they're hopeful the state's new commodity-specific food safety program will bolster consumer confidence in their crop.
The market for the spring crop coming out of the desert was good, but Bill Colace, owner of Brawley, Calif.-based Five Crowns Marketing, attributed much of that to reduced acreage.
"I still don't think the cantaloupe deal has recovered 100%," he said.
Jim Malanca, vice president of sales for Westside Produce Inc., Firebaugh, Calif., said several factors, including lingering effects from last fall's listeria-tainted Colorado cantaloupe, probably contributed to this summer's lethargic market.
"It's very difficult to put your finger on ― everything that's going on economy-wise, weather-wise and food safety-wise," he said. "We've done as much as we can to make sure our food is safe for consumers, and we document everything."
Compared to spring and summer acreage, the fall melon deal historically has been much smaller.
In 2011, about 4,700 acres of cantaloupes were harvested in California from October through December compared with 10,800 acres from April through June and 21,400 acres from July through September, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
New safety program
In response to last fall's listeria outbreak, California cantaloupe growers and handlers enlisted the help of university and other food safety experts to develop a mandatory food safety program.
Members of the Dinuba-based California Cantaloupe Advisory Board unanimously approved the program in May.
Colace, who is also vice chairman of the board, said he believes the program already has helped bolster confidence among retailers and buyers. But consumers may be a different story.
"I think the biggest thing is to educate the public that we have a piece of fruit that is very safe," he said.
Malanca agreed.
"It's not our buyers that I worry about," he said. "It's the consumer. The buyers expect us to have done that."
Malanca said food safety representatives from several retailers visited his operation this summer.
The amended California Cantaloupe Advisory Board now covers all cantaloupe produced and marketed in the state and includes a food-safety certification program.
Not following the plan, which relies on a set of production and handling metrics, will amount to unfair trade practices.
The board based the program on the Food and Drug Administration's 2009 guidance for melons, though it's been modified to take into account California growing practices, board manager John Gilstrap said.
California Department of Food and Agriculture auditors, who are certified by the USDA, will inspect operations.
An auditor's checklist is still in the works.
"It's kind of a cumbersome process to get all of the guidelines developed," Gilstrap said.
As part of the overall food safety program, growers who pass the audit receive a certification stamp, which is in development, he said.
The board aims to complete the guidelines by the end of 2012, Gilstrap said.
In the meantime, inspectors are conducting informational inspections.
"What they've essentially started doing is pointing out any issues that may come up for the growers," Gilstrap said.


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3 Minute Read
Myth: I don't have time to work on a budget.
Truth: You don't have time not to make a budget!
It's the dreaded "B" word—budget. The only other word that starts with "B" that might generate more dread is the word bankruptcy.
Unfortunately, the word budget has gotten a bad rap. It's basically just a plan. When you budget, you're spending with purpose, before the month begins. But many people view a budget as a straightjacket that keeps them from doing what they want. Freedom and budget just don't seem to go together.
That couldn't be further from the truth! When you see that a budget is simply spending your money with intention, you'll actually experience more freedom than before. Many people even say they've found "extra" money when they created a realistic budget and stuck with it.
Local experts you can trust.Find an ELP
A budget is simply spending your money with intention.
Here are ten pointers for your first budget:
1. Budget to zero before the month begins. That means every dollar gets a name before you spend a dime of it.
2. If you're married, you and your spouse need to do the budget together. Period. The preacher said " . . . and you are one." If you're single, find someone who can act as your accountability partner.
3. Every month is different (think birthdays, vacations, car insurance, back-to-school supplies), so be sure to adjust your budget monthly.
4. As you're budgeting, start with your most important categories first, like giving, housing, food, clothing, insurance and bills. Then, fill in the rest of your budget with your leftover cash.
5. If you're in debt, paying that off should be a top priority. Use the debt snowball and the Baby Steps to focus your money where it has the most impact.
6. Don't be afraid to make budget cuts. If your budget is tight, save money by canceling cable, eating out less, and shopping at a discount grocery store. You can always rearrange things next month.
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7. If pen and paper (or spreadsheets) aren't your thing, try our free online budget tool, EveryDollar. You can make your budget and track your spending from the comfort of your smartphone! Plus, you can sync up your budget with your spouse.
8. Use the cash envelope system for as many budget categories as it makes sense. For example, keep paying for gasoline with your debit card, but get cash out for your fun money and clothing cash. Once your envelope is empty, stop spending! It's the ultimate accountability partner.
9. Give yourself lots of grace. It usually takes three to four months to get this whole budgeting thing down pat. It won't be perfect the first time, or the second. But you'll get there!
10. Be content. You have much more than you realize. Don't compare your situation to anyone else's. Keep moving forward and doing what's right for your family.
Related: Learn more about contentment in Rachel Cruze's book, Love Your Life, Not Theirs.
When you are spending your money with purpose, you'll be on the road to changing your family tree forever! Imagine your future (and your kids' future) without money worries. That's the beauty of a hardworking budget.
Create your first budget in 10 minutes with EveryDollar, our online budgeting tool!


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Hiya, I know this may be a very simple question but i'm just starting prolog and trying to get a grasp on it - just struggling a bit.
What I am trying to do, is use a rule such as : which_system(Component).
That will return the info on a system that is declared in a fact liek : spec([execomp211, hard_disk(40), ram(ram500MB), processor(intel_core2_duo)]).
So if i entered : which_system(hard_disk(120)). into the console then it would return the info about that system.
I've been told to use the methods:
member1(X, [X|Y]).
member1(X, [Z|Y]):- member1(X,Y).
But I can't seem to find anymore help than that online! I'm not asking to do this for me, jsut any pointers would bemuch appreciated
Ah, yes, as we get closer to the end of a semester, the homework gets tougher...
You need to get familiar with Prolog lists, ex:
This is not gamedev related, so I'm closing this thread.


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A U.S. District judge ruled this week that a Texas school can put locator chips on its students -- and expel those who don't comply.
In the controversial ruling, District Judge Orlando Garcia said San Antonio Northside School District was within its rights to kick sophomore Andrea Hernandez out of Jay High School. The 15-year-old refused to wear the device, which has become mandatory since last fall for all students while on school property.
HLN wrote about the school district's plans last summer, along with the blogosphere's reaction to it, in which many viewed the new ID badges embedded with radio frequency identification (RFID) chips as an affront to privacy. School officials said the devices would help to keep tabs on troublesome students and help identify which students were cutting class and so on. There is also a financial incentive to use the devices: School revenue is reportedly determined in part by attendance rolls – something the ID badges are designed to track.
A statement forwarded Thursday to HLN from Pascual Gonzalez, the executive director of communications for the school district, said the ruling comes months after the school had done all it could to work with the student.
The ruling "affirms NISD's position that we did make reasonable accommodation to the student by offering to remove the RFID chip from the student's smart ID badge. The student had voiced religious objection to the use of RFID technology."
"The family now has the choice to accept the accommodation and stay at the magnet program or return to her home campus at the start of the second semester, Jan 22, 2013," Gonzalez said.
Internet forums and comments on social media sites have called the RFID program part of "the mark of the beast," a biblical reference. Hernandez has cited her religious beliefs as a reason for her refusal to wear the chip, which is a replacement for the school's ID badge.
Hernandez said weeks after the RFID program was instituted she faced consequences from the school.
"When I went to cast my vote for homecoming king and queen I had a teacher tell me I would not be allowed to vote because I did not have the proper voter ID," she told WND.
"I had my old student ID card, which they originally told us would be good for the entire four years we were in school. He said I needed the new ID with the chip in order to vote."
Read more: Oh, Brother? School to track kids with chips
Attorneys for the Virginia-based Rutherford Institute, a conservative policy center that advocates for civil liberties, have filed an appeal for the teenager, saying that the school district is in violation of Hernandez's First and 14th Amendment rights.
"The Supreme Court has made clear that government officials may not scrutinize or question the validity of an individual's religious beliefs," John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute, said in a press release the group forwarded to HLN.
"By declaring Andrea Hernandez's objections to be a secular choice and not grounded in her religious beliefs, the district court has placed itself as an arbiter of what is and is not religious. This is simply not permissible under our constitutional scheme, and we will appeal this case all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary."
Update: On Friday, the institute sent HLN a statement, saying, "Andrea's religious objection derives from biblical teachings that equate accepting a personalized code—as a sign of submission to government authority and as a means of obtaining certain privileges from a secular ruling authority—with a form of idolatry or submission to a false god."
ACLU: Tracking device 'vulnerable to hacking'
Also, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas told HLN that the school district's policy blatantly crosses the line from monitoring kids to outright "stalking".
"We have safety and privacy concerns about use of RFID technology on students in schools," Dotty Griffith, the ACLU's public education director, said in a statement. "The technology was originally designed for shipping goods and cattle, not taking roll at school, thus RFID chips make the perfect stalking device. Because the technology is easy to acquire, it is vulnerable to hacking which could allow someone outside the school to monitor a student's off-campus whereabouts if they obtained the student's tracking number."
The issue has spooked privacy advocates and added to an increasing backlash against RDIF devices, which have become commonplace in everything from T-shirts to grocery items.
HLN readers, we want to hear from you: Do you believe the proposed safety and financial benefits outweigh privacy concerns? Share your opinion with us in the comments.


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Collectors Turn to Casino Chips, Seeking Fun, Profit and a Link to Gambling History Through These Fascinating and Colorful Pieces of Clay and Plastic That Don't Lose Their Value Even After They Leave the Gaming Table
Nearly 30 years later, the value of those chips has been restored many times over. Cuban chips have become prized possessions to many within the expanding cadre of casino chip collectors.
It's not the value of Cuban chips, however, that attract most of today's collectors.
"I felt they had true beauty, the artwork and history behind them," says one New York chip collector who doesn't want his identity known, should it make it more difficult for him to bring chips out of Cuba. "The reason I started collecting Cuban chips is because the casino business is interwoven with the history of Cuba. It is one of the few places where there was an immediate cessation of gambling--at midnight on December 31st, 1958. The Revolution and antigaming sentiment is interwoven."
While a handful of enthusiasts around the world collect Cuban chips, it is the modern-day gaming chip, primarily from the post-Second World War era in Las Vegas, that is most prized by the majority of collectors. That period is bracketed by the first hotel and casino on the Las Vegas strip, the El Rancho Vegas, which opened in 1941 and closed in 1960, and the strip's latest gaming establishment, New York-New York, which opened in early 1997.
Ten years ago, casino chip collectors in the United States numbered fewer than 25. Many of them were gamblers who slipped a chip into their pocket as a memento of the action. Today, there are approximately 2,000 active members in the nonprofit Casino Chip and Gaming Token Collectors Club (CC>CC), making it the largest specialty club within the American Numismatic Association. At the club's 1997 convention at the Aladdin casino in Las Vegas, collectors bid a total of $47,000 at auction for a variety of casino chips.
The growth of the hobby has been nothing less than unbelievable to longtime collectors, many of whom thought they were the only ones quirky enough to care for little, round pieces of clay and plastic stamped with the names of long-forgotten casinos. Two recent developments have fueled collector interest in casino chips. The first is the steady spread of gambling across the United States. "Every time a new gaming jurisdiction opens up, the people from that area become instant chip collectors," says CC>CC founder and president Archie Black. The second reason may be evident to anyone who's visited a casino in the past few years. New computer-aided design capabilities, laser-etching technologies and manufacturing techniques now allow manufacturers to produce chips with beautiful full-color designs and photographs. Today's chips rarely have only the denomination and casino name stamped on either side.
Most casinos now regularly issue limited editions of chips to commemorate casino events: a George Foreman fight chip from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, a George Burns 100th birthday chip from Caesars Palace Las Vegas, a Luciano Pavarotti chip from Foxwoods in Connecticut and Resorts International in Atlantic City, and a Kentucky Derby chip from the Tropicana in Las Vegas and in Atlantic City. These commemorative chips are "live" and can be used at the gaming tables, though they're usually snapped up by collectors within days of their issue.
The beauty of collecting casino chips lies in their value from the onset. Most other collectibles lose value after being bought at retail and then may slowly appreciate. Baseball cards, for example, become valuable only after certain star players have noteworthy careers. The majority of all other cards remain worthless. That's not the case with casino chips. "If you buy a chip off the table at face value, you can always cash it back in for exactly what you paid for it," says Black. "If the casino goes bankrupt or changes name, the chip is worth even more."
While collectors enjoy watching the value of their collections grow, most acquire chips today because they are drawn to the history of towns such as Las Vegas, Atlantic City and Havana. "When I was growing up here, I remember certain clubs that are no longer downtown or on the Strip," says Ron Lurie, who was mayor of Las Vegas from 1987 to 1991 and is now the director of marketing for Arizona Charlie's hotel and casino. "There was the Lucky Club, Diamond Jim's, the Boulder Club and one special club--the Pussycat a'GoGo. They had one little craps table and one 21 table. It was just a place to go to dance and hang out for people of our age. That's where I met my wife." When Lurie started collecting casino chips two years ago, he went about acquiring the usual commemorative chips as well as those from the old Las Vegas casinos. Lurie now has about 700 chips in his collection, but it's a single chip from the Pussycat a'GoGo, now worth about $75, that is one of his prized possessions.
These days, almost everyone who collects casino chips, also called checks or sometimes cheques, has a subspecialty. With an estimated 12,000 legal and illegal casinos known to have operated worldwide between 1900 and 1997, according to longtime chip collector and gaming historian Howard Herz, too many variations and denominations exist for all of them to be collected. Chip collectors typically collect by region, with the most popular being casinos from Las Vegas, followed by other gaming towns in Nevada such as Lake Tahoe, Reno and Laughlin. Atlantic City is the next most popular specialty, followed by--in no particular order--riverboats, Colorado (which legalized gambling in 1991), Indian reservations, cruise ships and non-U.S. casinos.
By far, the most popular niche within the hobby is collecting obsolete chips from casinos in the Silver State, preferably those from Las Vegas. Typically, chips become obsolete in one of three ways: (1) the casino that issued them goes out of business--the Playboy casino in Atlantic City or the Dunes in Las Vegas, for example; (2) the casino changes its name or ownership and issues chips under the new name; or (3) the casino changes chip design or manufacturer. "Everyday chips become valuable once they're obsolete," explains Black. "You take people for granted until they're gone; it's the same way with chips."
High-denomination chips are particularly valuable to the collector of obsolete chips. A $100 chip from Benny "Bugsy" Siegel's two-year, 1946-1947 reign at the original Flamingo in Las Vegas sold for $3,500 at CC>CC's 1997 auction. A 1950s-era $100 chip from the Dunes sells for about $2,500. A $100 chip from The Brighton in Atlantic City, now the Sands Hotel and Casino, sells in the low four figures.
"Most gamblers may have taken a $1 chip home with them, but how many would leave the casino with a $100 chip in their pocket," says Bill Akeman Jr., who publishes Gaming Times magazine, a glossy publication devoted to the history and collectibility of chips, dice and other gaming memorabilia. He also operates a retail store in Las Vegas under the same name and his personal collection runs to 10,000 chips.
An obsolete chip doesn't have to be old to be valuable, however. For example, one of the rarest is a $5 chip from the Golden Goose casino in Las Vegas, which operated from 1975 to 1980. The Fremont Street casino was slots only, except for two weeks when it had several gaming tables. Only one chip is known to have survived from the Golden Goose, and it sold for $3,000 at a CC>CC auction in 1996. Another recent rarity comes from the Club Royale cruise ship, which once sailed out of Florida. The Club Royale sank in 1995 after failing to outrun Hurricane Erin, making chips from the ship some of the most valuable Florida chips available today, according to Florida chip collector Mark Lighterman. One-dollar chips from the 1940s and 1950s are also surprisingly valuable. That is because they were not created in great numbers. Most casinos at the time used silver dollar coins instead of $1 chips. It's not unusual for older $1 chips to sell for upwards of $50.
Many collectors shave their area of interest even finer. Some collect chips only from California's card rooms, which have been legal since the 1880s. Others collect chips only from illegal gambling clubs in places like the formerly wide open towns of Newport, Kentucky, and Beaumont, Texas. Most of the illegal gaming in those towns ended in the early 1950s in the wake of hearings brought by Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver.
Others get a kick out of owning chips from casinos associated with gangsters and celebrities such as Bugsy Siegel's Flamingo; Al Capone's Floridian Casino in Miami, in which Capone had a partial stake from 1929 to 1930; and Frank Sinatra's Cal-Neva Lodge in Lake Tahoe, which the singer owned from 1955 to 1968 but sold after voluntarily surrendering his gaming license because the casino was frequented by known mobsters.
Still other collectors specialize in roulette chips. Nondenominational chips of various color and design that can be played at only roulette wheels, they are often produced in significantly smaller quantities than other table chips (a house may have only 300 or so in each color and design) and are used to help identify which player has placed which bet on the felt table. Casinos frown on chip collectors taking roulette chips, because wheel chips are worth whatever a player buys in for. Therefore, a chip bought for $5 one day could be surreptitiously placed into a game the next day when the same chip is worth $25. The croupiers' watchful eyes cannot detect every roulette chip that is taken. When Resorts in Atlantic City introduced colorful roulette chips manufactured by a company called Chipco several years ago, so many chips were taken, or "walked" in the parlance of casino executives, that the casino was forced to remove them from play. Today, the two rarest roulette chips from that set, the ones with purple star and brown camera designs, sell for $750 each. Monaco's Société des Bains de Mer casino recently issued 14 different Chipco roulette chips, which are now worth $50 apiece to collectors.
For many collectors, it's the hunt for obsolete chips that excites them. One collector says he found dozens of chips from the Little Club, which operated on Fremont Street in Las Vegas in the 1940s and early 1950s, in the recreation room at an old-age home. The residents were using them for their evening card games.
When chip collectors talk history, the conversation often turns to the most wide-open gambling town of the 1950s-- Havana, Cuba. With Senator Kefauver shutting down illegal gaming across the United States, casino owners were left with only two nearby areas in which to relocate legally, Nevada and Cuba. Meyer Lansky, the Jewish godfather who bankrolled Bugsy Siegel's Flamingo, set up operations in both Havana and Las Vegas.
Lansky owned a piece of the Hotel Nacional, the Habana Riviera and the Casino de Capri in Havana. (A Meyer Lansky-like character was portrayed by actor Lee Strasberg in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather, Part II, carving up Havana's gambling among various mob bosses.) The Capri attracted many of the Hollywood elite, who were permitted to gamble on the airplane ride from Miami to Havana. Actor George Raft was the full-time host of the Capri's Salon Rojo. Because of the casino's popularity, its chips are some of the most plentiful of those from Cuba, though they are found in significantly smaller numbers than those from most popular Las Vegas casinos. Chips from the Capri typically range in value from $20 to $75.
One of the premier collectors of Cuban chips, Henry Garrett, has traced 80 casinos that existed in Cuba from 1840 to 1958. Those casinos issued as many as 600 different chips. The Tropicana alone issued approximately 75 different chips between 1941 and 1958. Of those 600 different chips, however, Garrett believes as many as 150 are unique or nearly unique--meaning only one, or two at the most, have ever been seen in the collectibles market. Garrett buys many of his chips from baseball card dealers who regularly do business in Cuba. The island nation has been baseball crazy since the days when many of the Major League teams had spring training sites there. Garrett believes there are about two dozen serious collectors of Cuban chips in the United States, though many others count at least one Cuban chip in their collections. Garrett also suspects there are many "closet collectors" among Cuban nationals in Florida and elsewhere.
For collectors, the most popular Cuban chips are the ones that have the word Havana, or, in some cases, Habana, printed on them. The Habana Hilton and Habana Riviera are two casinos that produced chips that have become extremely collectable for that reason. Other valuable and scarce pre-Castro chips came from the Havana Yacht Club, considered Havana's premier private social club. As the story goes, the owner of the club fled Cuba within days of the Revolution, bringing with him 60,000 to 70,000 of his club's casino chips and stashing them on his escape yacht. For whatever reason, he threw the chips overboard. The few chips that survive today are those that walked out of the casino in patrons' pockets.
"People are scavenging Spanish galleons; maybe they'll be doing the same for chips one day," says one collector.
In the last year or two, however, chips from Las Vegas and Atlantic City casinos have steadily risen in value, while the prices of Cuban chips have plummeted. The reason, say collectors, is tied to uncertainty over the island's political future. Few Cuban chips are in the hands of collectors today, but many collectors believe that warehouses full of chips could come onto the market should Cuba be opened to the United States. Thousands of Cuban citizens could have chips stashed away in coffee cans and drawers. "The fact that slot machines and bigger collectibles that should have shown up from Cuba have not," says Garrett, "means this stuff could still be there. People are waiting to see where the price settles."
The result has been a precipitous drop in prices for Cuban chips. Most sell in the $20-to-$50 range, a far cry from the $200 to $500 they were realizing just two years ago. Even the most desired Cuban chips are not immune. A Cuban check from Wilbur Clark's casino (Clark went on to open the Desert Inn in Las Vegas) that went for $1,000 two years ago now sells for $200.
Still "Cuban chips are extremely important," says Herz, who in the 1960s created the first museum-quality collection of chips and gaming archives for Harvey's casino in Lake Tahoe. "People have a genuine reluctance to buy them, but they will have to get over that because these chips are historically significant."
Today, the hottest chip collectible is the limited-edition commemorative chip. Although casinos have tens of thousands of their everyday house chips, commemoratives are usually manufactured in small editions ranging from 500 to 5,000 and are typically issued in $5 denominations, though some go higher. For the last Mike Tyson/Evander Holyfield fight, the MGM Grand in Las Vegas issued $100 and $500 commemorative chips. "For a collector, limited chips are where it's happening," says Lurie. "If the edition is under 1,000 I'll invest in them. Anything under 1,000 you'll have trouble finding, but the value will go up fast."
Here are some examples of commemorative chips in demand: a $5 Valentine's Day chip issued in l997 by Harrah's Atlantic City now sells for $60, a $5 Donald Trump/Marla Maples wedding chip issued by the Taj Mahal sells for about $45, a $5 George Burns 100th birthday chip issued by Caesars Palace in Las Vegas sells for about $30, and a $5 Betty Boop chip issued by the MGM Grand in Las Vegas sells for $35.
"Commemorative chips have changed the face of chip collecting," says Gene Trimble, the keno manager at the Fiesta casino in Las Vegas, who has more than5,000 chips in his collection. "It's brought more new collectors to the hobby. Before commemoratives, casinos would never tell you how many chips they made. "
But limited-edition chips have also been responsible for a great deal of hand-wringing among collectors. "There is such a glut of new chips I don't know if there will be a demand five years from now," says Bob Mera, an Atlantic City native and former dealer who owns the Gaming Emporium on the boardwalk in Atlantic City. "You can buy 100 different $5 chips for $600; there is so much stuff."
Many traditionalists think casinos are taking advantage of collectors by flooding the market with new chips that seem to have little connection to gaming or true commemorative events. "A lot of collectors don't buy limited-edition chips because they're issued primarily for collectors, not for gambling," says Black. Nor do those chips spark the imaginations of collectors the way older, obsolete chips do. "They're not very meaningful," says Las Vegas native James Campiglia, a collector and historian who owns about 12,000 chips. "They've got pictures of bowlers and boxers and rodeo riders. With older, historical chips you think about Meyer Lanskyand the mob."
In a 16-month period from January 1996 to May 1997, Nevada casinos issued 415 commemorative chips, according to Casino Collectible Magazine. Fifty-nine Nevada casinos issued at leastone commemorative chip in 1996, with four casinos accounting for a whopping 36 percent of all commemorative issues: Four Queens, Las Vegas (43), Arizona Charlie's, Las Vegas (28), Flamingo Hilton, Laughlin (25) and Flamingo Hilton, Reno (24). Purchasing one of every Nevada commemorative chip at face value in 1996 would have set a collector back $3,609.
The Fiesta casino in North Las Vegas issued the most commemorative chips through the first quarter of 1997 (15), followed by the Flamingo Hilton, Laughlin (12). Collectors say there is a simple reason why Four Queens issued the most chips in 1996 and why the Fiesta is leading so far in 1997. Gene Trimble, an avid chip collector, worked as Four Queens' chip coordinator before leaving in October 1996 to assume the same duties at the Fiesta. "The collector world is divided," says Trimble. "Collectors started going after casino managers and asked for more commemoratives. Now, all of a sudden, they say there's too many. But even the ones that complain still come in and get the chips."
Alhough Trimble admits he's as much at fault as anyone for the glut of chips on the market, it's hard to take offense at someone so enthusiastic about chip collecting. "This hobby is a hobby of the future," says Trimble, who grew up in Newport, Kentucky, and specializes in illegal gaming chips from that town. "If the number of collectors double, the value of my collection doubles. Everybody can buy these chips at face value, and they're beautiful. It gets to be a financial burden for some people, but chips are so easy to dump. You may not earn a lot of money, but you'll get your money back."
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A BRAVE mum 'kept smiling to the end' while battling an aggressive and inoperable brain tumour for 15 months.
Angela Hamilton-Smith, 34, from Morse Street, Burnley, died peacefully at home, surrounded by her family, almost a year-and-a-half after being diagnosed with a walnut-sized tumour in the centre of her brain.
At first, doctors at Royal Blackburn Hospital thought Angela was suffering complications from a hysterectomy five weeks earlier when, in October 2012, she began suffering nausea, dizziness and blurred vision.
But when Angela - who leaves husband Howard and daughter, Atlanta - lost her vision altogether, doctors took a CT scan and discovered a growth.
Doctors at Royal Preston Hospital discovered Angela, an administrator at Lancashire Sports Repairs, had an astrocytoma, cancerous brain cells, and delivered the devastating news.
But her family said Angela never gave up fighting and her sister, Susan Harrison, 39, from Colne, said Angela surprised the doctors at every turn.
She said: "She really did fight it. It was a huge fight and I've no idea how she did it. She fought to her last breath and stayed as long as she could."
Angela's mum, Lynn Harrison, 58, said her daughter knew she was dying when doctors gave her the diagnosis.
But Lynn said doctors and nurses told the family that while Angela was struggling with incredible levels of pain, she was one of the nicest patients they had ever cared for.
She said: "The doctors and nurses said Angie would smile at everyone. I don't know how she did it with everything she was going through.
"We were on holiday when we got texts saying Angela was ill and got the next flight home.
"She said she was so glad we came back and she said her goodbyes to us."
Mr Hamilton-Smith said his wife was a devoted mother to her 14-year-old daughter.
He said: "Atlanta was the most important thing in Angie's life. They were very close. Angie adored her."
After being admitted to Royal Preston Hospital for a biopsy on the cancerous tissue, Angela was in and out of hospital, receiving care at Burnley General Hospital Rehabilitation Unit, Clitheroe Hospital, and at home.
Over the following 12 months, Angela had another biopsy, along with gruelling courses of radiotherapy, chemotherapy and steroids.
In October 2013, the family were told Angela had a matter of weeks or months left to live, and she was discharged to be cared for at home with family in the Ribble Valley.
Alan Harrison, 37, Angela's brother, said the family were not given a prediction of how much time they had left with her.
He said: "You just have to trust what medical professionals tell you but we lived in hope that she would get better. We had to."The doctors told Angie that she didn't have very long left, but because of the tumour, Angie didn't remember, which was a blessing.
"The doctors and nurses did everything they could for her, we couldn't thank them enough.
"The Ribble Valley district nurses were fantastic."
Alan's wife Lisa gave birth to a little girl yesterday (Friday) morning, three days after Angela passed away on Tuesday.
The new dad said: "We've named her Ruby Angela Harrison, after Angie. It's pretty amazing. It's come as some happiness after all of the sadness."
Angela also leaves her dad David.
Angela's funeral will be held at Burnley Cemetery Chapel in Rossendale Road at 1.45pm on Tuesday, then afterwards at Rosegrove Unity. Donations should be made to The Brain Tumour Charity c/o Alderson and Horan Funeral Services.


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Future Mrs. Diaz Apron
Product Color:
Product information
Wearing this Apron Future Mrs. Diaz proves to everyone that you really CAN cook. I mean, who else would put on an apron for no other reason? And everyone knows that a Barbeque is a messy (and yummy) ordeal. Future Mrs. Diaz might even protect you from extra heavy duty splatters and spills.
The Diaz Apron includes neck ties and extra long waist ties and makes any cooking experience rewarding. You are sure to receive many compliments! 35% Cotton / 65% polyester blend, twill fabric. Machine washable.
Sku: MD0BL0000020982121210372YGCR00000