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A fixed-length shovel is lightweight and makes for easy storage in a backpack, but a shovel with an adjustable-length shaft gives you the potential for more leverage so you can move a lot of snow quickly. Some shafts feature extras like saws or probes stowed inside, to save space in your pack.
Handles come in three basic shapes: T-grip, D-grip, and L-shaped. The T-grip is the most common, and generally functions well. L-grips are the lightest in weight. D-grip handles are bulkier and heavier, but can be easier to hold, especially with mittens.
A plastic blade isn't strong enough to dig through concrete-hard avalanche debris. Aluminum is the only choice for safety in avalanche terrain. Some blades offer a serrated edge or pointed shape for extra digging power. Blade size is also a factor; those with larger blades will move more snow, but are harder to manage.


text: WVC football: West Virginia State goes for back-to-back wins By Ryan Pritt October 5, 2012 Story Share Chip Ellis West Virginia State quarterback Ricky Phillips is among the Yellow Jackets' walking wounded but is expected to play today at home against West Liberty. Today's homecoming game at Lakin Field in Institute is a matchup of two teams heading in opposite directions, and for the first time in a while, it is West Virginia State's stock that is on an uptick.Fresh off a road win at Seton Hill last Saturday - its first road victory since 2008 - State welcomes West Liberty for a 1:30 p.m. contest.The Hilltoppers have lost two conference games in a row (to Fairmont State and Glenville State) after winning their league opener over West Virginia Wesleyan."They're a little bit up and down this year," State coach Earl Monroe said of West Liberty. "They're a big-play offense, they have great schemes on offense, they run great routes, they'll get in trips formations and give you a ton of different looks and routes. We've got to read those flood routes and not read underneath because then they'll beat you over the top."We have to break on the ball, make tackles, keep the ball in front of us and eliminate big plays." So far, the State defense has done a much better job of that. The Jackets have given up an average of 22.3 points per game against Division II opponents this year. While not the 1985 Bears, it's better than last season's 34.7 average, and it's easy to see the Jackets defense is giving the offense a much better chance of making the plays necessary to win.However, in order to keep those numbers down, State will have to deal with an 11-week grind of a season that includes no bye week. Instead, the Yellow Jackets played two Division I FCS schools and took the guaranteed money."Our bye week every two years moves up a week," Monroe said. "We were able to get a guaranteed game in that early week this year. When you have some time off and you get on a roll, you wish you would play. But then it seems like in those years when you've got bumps and bruises, you always seem to need one." The Jackets (2-3 overall, 1-1 West Virginia Conference) sure do have those with injuries starting to pile up on defense and with quarterback Ricky Phillips a bit hobbled after being injured in last week's win.Banged up or not, Phillips is expected to go today and State will likely need him to stay above .500 in the WVC.With only two teams left undefeated in league play (Shepherd 3-0, Glenville State 2-0), State could be poised to make some noise on a bigger scale."You can't look at who beat who last week to figure out what you're going to do," Monroe said. "There are so many styles of defenses and offenses, it becomes matchups against that team on that particular week that will decide games. If you're not good against the run, you don't want to go play UC or be anywhere near Jordan Roberts. If you're doing well against the pass you match up better with some teams, that's part of the parity and part of what's going on."Teams like Shepherd that are balanced and can do both end up rising to the top. It's a battle to get there and we've got some awfully tough schemes and teams to face left on our schedule." nn Speaking of making waves, the University of Charleston was but six points away from handing the Rams their first loss of the season back on Sept. 22, a loss that remains the only blemish on UC's record (4-1, 2-1) thus far.The wins have come even while starting quarterback Maurice Leak has in and out of the lineup with injuries since the second game of the season. Freshman John Knox has stepped in and done a serviceable job, and he seemed to take a big step forward last week in a 30-10 win over Fairmont State."It was a good win, a good team win," UC coach Pat Kirkland said. "I thought at times we were hitting on all cylinders on offense and defense for first time in awhile. It was a good conference win over a good Fairmont team."Leak's availability remains in question this week as he remains day-to-day.Of course, any quarterback would be more at ease with Jordan Roberts in the backfield. The senior running back set UC's career rushing mark last week and is second in the conference with 107.8 rushing yards per game.Kirkland said the entire offense has stepped up to help Knox out."It's good to see," Kirkland said. "Other guys on offense and on the team have helped John. Obviously there's Jordan Roberts to hand the ball to, but [receivers] Shaq Williams and Chris Maxwell each had tremendous games last week and that's a help as well." Charleston could be in for a big Homecoming day in all facets as it hosts winless Seton Hill (0-5, 0-3) at 2 p.m. today.The Griffins allow the second most points in the league (38 per game) and score the least amount in the league (14.6)."Seton Hill is obviously struggling a little bit record-wise this year," Kirkland said. "They had a very close game last week where State came back and beat them. Their offense is talented, their quarterback is a senior and they have an ability to put points on the board. We've got to make sure we come out hitting on all cylinders."Reach Ryan Pritt at 304-348-7948, email@example.com">firstname.lastname@example.com, or follow him at twitter.com/RPritt. Story Share Story Share Trending Now 1 Facebook founder visits Charleston restaurant 2 Innerviews: Dual-identity surgeon riding high in horse racing world 3 Safety shutoff disabled prior to June coal-mining death, report says 4 Gazette editorial: Capito has second chance to do the right thing 5 WVU seeking improvements during off week Tulsa-Marshall game capsule Previous Story High school football scores, summaries -- Oct. 6 Next Story

subset: commoncrawl


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One of our guest this week went to the FDR Memorial and told us how fantastic it was! She told us that it was an excellent memorial to the man, his life, and times, in a beautiful setting of waterfalls over natural rocks, especially during night time.
Here, a little bit more about the Memorial:
The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial is a presidential memorial dedicated to the memory of U.S. President Franklin Delano Rooseveltand to the era he represents. For the memorial's designer, landscape architect Lawrence Halprin, the memorial site represents the capstone of a Roosevelt presidency. The 7.5-acre site, the memorial depicts the 12 pivotal years of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidency through a series of four outdoor gallery rooms. The rooms feature ten bronze sculptures depicting President Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt and events from the Great Depression and World War II.
The memorial includes waterfalls and quiet pools amidst a meandering wall of reddish Dakota granite, where Roosevelt's inspiring words are carved.
Tips: It is the first memorial in Washington, DC purposely designed to be totally wheelchair accessible. Open daily except Christmas. Free. Park Ranger in attendance 8 am – midnight
Jonathan, Innkeeper
American Guest House in Washington DC


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Chicago Children's Theatre and Redmoon Present THE ELEPHANT AND THE WHALE, Beginning 4/10
Chicago Children's Theatre Artistic Director Jacqueline Russell has announced the company's 2012-13 season finale, a world premiere collaboration with Redmoon's Frank Maugeri to create The Elephant and The Whale.
This all-new family fable features sea voyages, wild mechanical objects, circus songs, panoramic paintings, exquisite shadow puppets and an innovative sound design. Performances are April 10-May 26, 2013 at Chicago Children's Theatre's new home, the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn, Chicago. Press opening is Friday, April 12 at 7 p.m.
Single tickets start at $25, and are on sale now. To purchase, visit chicagochildrenstheatre.org or call (872) 222-9555. For group rates, visit GroupTix.net or call (773) 327-3778. The Elephant and The Whale is recommended for all ages.
The year is 1919, and it's the end of an era for a beloved circus elephant named Ella. When a nefarious new owner takes over the homegrown Hoogebeck Family show, Ella the star elephant discovers an unexpected new animal in the circus: a landlocked and homesick baby whale. What happens next is a unique story of friendship and adventure spanning species, rivers, railroads and nautical miles.
A spectacle in miniature, The Elephant and The Whale is an epic tale about that invites audiences of all ages to discover the majesty of the largest animals on our planet, and a story of friendship conquering all obstacles. This must-see family show is conceived by Frank Maugeri, with an original story by Seth Bockley, Leslie Buxbaum Danzig, and Frank Maugeri, and script and songs by Seth Bockley with composer Kevin O'Donnell. The Elephant and The Whale is directed by Leslie Buxbaum Danzig (of 500 Clown) and Maugeri.
Kurt Brocker, David Catlin, Kasey Foster and Becky Poole form the four-person cast who together will weave this fantastical tale while cranking audio devices, pedaling panoramic painting apparatuses, manipulating shadow puppet sequences and singing folk-inflected songs. A nickelodeon-like, three-horned gramophone machine, coin operated by the performers, has been specially designed to play the music for the production. After each performance, audiences will have the chance to interact with the artists and get an up close look at the set, props, puppets and mechanical apparatuses.
As for the show's all-ages appeal, creator Frank Maugeri explains "Seth Bockley's original story is simple, lyrical and comical in a Seuss-like style which will appeal to younger kids. Yet the images by illustrator Matt Cipov, Mike Coon, and Andrea Everman live in a world of vintage cartoons and Monty Python and will speak to older kids. My co-director Leslie Buxbaum Danzig also brings a mature direction of the performers and clowns. Her work can often be both simultaneously funny and absurd to kids and even very complex and, at moments, dark, which definitely furthers our goal to develop this show on two different planes."
During his 17 year tenure with Redmoon Maugeri has created countless spectacle productions and events seen around Chicago. Highlights include serving as director, co-creator, and designer of the recent Astronaut's Birthday, a large-scale animated, graphic novel projected on the Museum of Contemporary Art's 80-foot façade; co-creation and design of the critically acclaimed The Feast: an intimate Tempest at Chicago Shakespeare Theater; seven of the famed All Hallow's Eve ritualcelebrations in Logan Square; over a dozen annual family-friendly Winter Pageant performances; Once Upon a Time (Jeff Award, After Dark Award) with its subsequent tour to France; Laika's Coffin and Cape and Squiggle for the Chicago Humanities Festival at MCA; Boneyard Prayer; and Redmoon's longest running production The Cabinet, its remountand tour of Brazil.
Seth Bockley, the critically-acclaimed writer and adapter, is a playwright in residence at the Goodman Theater and an artist in residence at the University of Chicago. He was a recipient of Theater Communications Group's New Generations Grant for which he spent two years with Redmoon as Directing Apprentice.
Leslie Buxbaum Danzig (co-director) directed Redmoon's Hunchback at New Victory Theater (NYC). With Lucky Plush Productions, she co-created The Better Half, which premiered at MCA Chicago and is now touring throughout the U.S., and is developing a new dance-theater production that premieres in spring 2014. For 10 years, Danzig was resident director with 500 Clown.
Kevin O'Donnell (composer) is a Chicago-based musician; he has worked in Chicago theater for the last 10 years, during which time he has been nominated for 19 Jeff Awards (receiving 8), and 2 consecutive After Dark Awards (Outstanding Season). He has worked around the country, both in theatre and as a musician, having recorded and toured with Andrew Bird, Kelly Hogan, Nickel Creek, and many others.
Cast member Kurt Brocker was most recently seen in American Wee-Pie at Rivendell, Welcome Home Jenny Sutter! at Next, The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later at Red Twist Theatre and The Farnsworth Invention at TimeLine.
David Catlin, founding ensemble member and former Artistic Director of Lookingglass Theatre, performed in The Arabian Nights, Our Town, Argonautika, Hard Times, and Manuscript Found in Saragossa at Lookingglass. Catlin also directed Lookingglass Alice, Icarus, Black Diamond (co-director), Metamorphosis, Her Name was Danger, The Idiot (Jeff Award), and Lookingglass Hamlet.
Kasey Foster is an ensemble member at Redmoon, where she has appeared in Winter Pageant 2010, Cape and Squiggle and Laika. She also played a dog in Adventure Stage Chicago's Gossamer.
As for Becky Poole, Chicago Children's Theatre audiences will fondly recall her hilarious turn as Mouse in Goodnight Moon in 2011. She also performed locally in The Hypocrites' Pirates of Penzance and her solo sketch show at iO Sit On My Lapse.
The production team for The Elephant and The Whale also includes John Musial (scenic design); Sarah Hughey (lighting design); Gillian Gryzlak (costume design); Liviu Pasare (projection design); and Andrea Everman (shadow puppet design). David A. Loranca is production stage manager.
The Elephant and Whale performance schedule
Previews of The Elephant and The Whale are Wednesday through Friday, April 10-12 at 10 a.m. Press opening is Friday, April 12 at 7 p.m. Performance times that weekend are Saturday, April 13 at 6 p.m.; and Sunday, April 14 at 11 a.m.
The regular performance schedule, April 16 through May 11, is Tuesday at 10 a.m.; Wednesday at 10 a.m. and 12 p.m.; Thursday at 10 a.m. and 6:30 p.m.; Friday at 10 a.m. and 6:30 p.m.; Saturday at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m.; and Sunday at 11 a.m.
Starting Sunday, May 12, a 2 p.m. matinee is added to the Sunday schedule, for the following expanded schedule through May 26: Tuesday at 10 a.m.; Wednesday at 10 a.m. and 12 p.m.; Thursday at 10 a.m. and 6:30 p.m.; Friday at 10 a.m. and 6:30 p.m.; Saturday at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m.; and Sunday at 11 a.m. and 2p.m.
Run time is approximately 60 minutes with no intermission.
Note: Family-friendly 6:30 p.m. Thursday shows are preceded with a free pizza party starting at 5:45 pm. Thursday evenings are $25 for dinner and show. On Friday evenings, families are encouraged to kick off their weekend at the 6:30 p.m. show, and stay after for a fun post-show craft party. Friday evenings are $25 for show and party.
Regular single tickets are $26 for children, $36 for adults. To purchase, visit chicagochildrenstheatre.org or call (872) 222-9555. For discounted school, scout, playgroup, extended family and other group rates, visit GroupTix.net or call (773) 327-3778.


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New York City, Statistics from Black Friday continue to trickle in, and they paint a mostly optimistic picture of the holiday selling season. While discounters made news with their long lines of bargain hunters in the wee hours of the morning on Friday, the malls are hoping for better things to come as the holiday progresses
Nationwide, sales Thursday through Sunday were up nearly 22% to $27.8 billion from $22.8 billion last year, according to a shopping survey by the National Retail Federation, based in Washington, D.C. The spending was fueled by deep discounts and demand for electronics, the NRF said. Big winners over the weekend appear to be the discounters. Wal-Mart Stores, the world's largest retailer, said Saturday that it expects to post a solid 4.3% gain in same-store sales for November, helped by better-than expected sales on Friday.
Separately, Visa USA said retail spending on Visa credit and debit cards rose 11% to $3.7 billion on Nov. 25-26, led by purchases of electronics. According to New Canaan, Conn.-based Customer Growth Partners (CGP), sales in November are showing strength year over year. Total sales are up 9.0%, home improvement is up 13%, electronics up 14%, discount stores up 10% and e-commerce up 11%. The CGP estimates for the period Nov. 1-26 uses data from the U.S. Census Bureau/Monthly Retail Trade Survey and company data. "The headline is that, so far, the holiday season is a home run, but as they say in the wine business, 'One swallow does not a season make," said CGP president Craig Johnson.
ShopperTrak RCT Corp., which tracks total sales at about 45,000 retail outlets, said overall sales on Friday were relatively unchanged compared with a year ago, despite heavier discounting and expanded hours that drew a surge of shoppers in the early morning. The Chicago-based research group reported total sales at $8 billion, down 0.9% from a year ago.
"Although the Black Friday number is a bit flat, this may be misleading as we're comparing this to a very strong 2004 performance," said Michael P. Niemira, chief economist and director of research for the International Council of Shopping Centers, in a statement.


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Good morning. I'm most honored to be joining you at this 91st National Convention. Two hundred years ago this past February the 12th, Abraham Lincoln was born here in Kentucky. In his second inaugural address, delivered as the Civil War was drawing to a close, President Lincoln called on our nation "to care for him, who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan." That charge is as compelling today as it was in 1865. It underscores the uniqueness and vitality of our advocacy on behalf of veterans.
Neither memories nor words can ever repay the debt our nation owes our Veterans. Standing at Gettysburg, President Lincoln bore added testimony: "The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here."
In your day, you earned similar accolades and testimony in Europe and Japan, Korea and Vietnam—in Kuwait and Somalia. On these bloody battlefields, the seeds of American heroism were planted. They are being sown again, today, in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is not just what you did in uniform that is remarkable—it is what you did when you came home that lifted the U.S. from emergent upstart to global superpower. And it was about leadership—your leadership.
Earlier this month, we celebrated implementation of the post-9/11 GI Bill. Just as you were responsible for passage of the original GI Bill of 1944, your commitment was, once again, instrumental in getting this new 9/11 GI Bill passed.
Returning World War II Veterans leveraged the educational opportunity provided by the original GI bill into sustained economic growth for the nation, catapulting the U.S. to the world's largest economy and, in time, to leadership of the free world. This post-9/11 new GI bill has the potential to impact the country in the same way.
Additionally, you have strengthened our communities through such benchmark initiatives as Boys Nation and Boys State, Boy Scouts and American Legion Baseball, the National High School Oratorical Contest, and the Heroes to Hometowns program.
Your Operation Comfort Warrior program has raised over $200,000 to buy comfort items and other goods for our wounded service members recovering in VA and military facilities worldwide.
You have been our eyes and ears in identifying the needs of our service members and Veterans, and our conscience for doing what's right. Your Military Family Forum Initiative gives the families of service members a chance to voice their concerns, enabling us all to help solve their problems.
Thank you for your continuing service to America. For over 90 years, we have been side by side, and we look forward to continuing this important partnership.
Over the past seven months, I have visited VA facilities—large and small, urban and rural, complex and simple—all across the country. I've spoken with leaders, staffs, and Veterans. I also invited each of our 21 VISN directors to share with me their requirements; their priorities; their measurements for performance, quality, and safety; and their need for resources—people, money, and time. I took the final, 4-hour VISN presentation two weeks ago. This was time well-invested—an invaluable learning experience.
Every day, 288,000 people come to work at VA to serve Veterans. We have only one mission—to care for our nation's veterans, wherever they live, by providing them the highest-quality benefits and services possible. We must do this faster, better, and more equitably.
The Veterans I've met in my travels have been uplifting. Many struggle with conditions inevitable with old age; others live with uncertain consequences from exposures to environmental threats and chemicals; still others have recently returned from Afghanistan and Iraq bearing the fresh wounds of war—visible and invisible.
Out of my encounters with Veterans, three concerns kept coming through—access, the backlog, and homeless Veterans.
Access: Of the 23.4 million Veterans in this country, roughly eight million are enrolled in VA. Five and a half million have used our medical services at least once; three and a half million visit our medical facilities regularly. Why have over 15 million Veterans never enrolled with us? Whatever the reason, VA will continue reaching out to them to explain our benefits, services, and the quality of our healthcare system.
A major initiative which will expand access is the President's decision to welcome back some 500,000 Priority Group 8 Veterans, who lost their entitlements in 2003. We began registering them in July, and we expect 266,000 enrollments this first year, through 2010.
Another initiative to expand and improve access is the evolution of our healthcare delivery system. VA's 153 medical centers are the flagships of our nationwide integrated healthcare enterprise. About a decade ago, VA brilliantly decided to move away from the concept of "here are our flagships; come visit us" to one that endeavors to deliver healthcare to wherever Veterans live.
To do that, we have created a system of 768 community-based outpatient clinics, 232 Vet Centers, outreach and mobile clinics, and when necessary, contracted specialized healthcare locally.
Our next major leap in healthcare delivery will be to routinely connect flagship medical centers to distant community-based outpatient clinics and their even more distant mobile counterparts via an IT backbone that places specialized healthcare professionals in direct contact with patients via telehealth and telemedicine hook-ups.
Today, we are even piloting connectivity from medical centers to the homes of the chronically ill to provide better monitoring and the prevention of avoidable acute episodes. This means that Veterans will drive less to receive routine healthcare, but they will have better access day to day. It will be higher quality and more convenient, especially for Veterans challenged by long distances—and prevention will mean healthier lives.
The backlog: Even though less than 50 percent of the Veteran population receives care or benefits from VA, we have a backlog in disability claims. The total number of claims in our inventory today is around 400,000, and backlogged claims that have been in the system for longer than 125 days total roughly 145,000 cases. In July, we closed out 85,000 claims and received another 89,000 new ones. Regardless of how we parse the numbers, there is a backlog, it is too big, and Veterans are waiting too long for their checks.
In April, President Obama charged Defense Secretary Gates and me to build a fully interoperable electronic records system that will provide each member of our armed forces a Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record that will track them from the day they put on the uniform, through their time as Veterans, until the day they are laid to rest.
VA is already a leader in the development and use of electronic health records. So is the Department of Defense. Between us, DoD and VA have an opportunity to drive the improvement of healthcare through a fully interoperable electronic health record. Our achievements here may go beyond Veterans and service members and could help the nation, as a whole. We are working with the President's chief performance, chief technology, and chief information officers to harness the powers of innovation and technology. For VA, it will revolutionize our claims process—faster processing, higher quality decisions, no lost records, fewer errors. I am personally committed to reducing the processing times of disability claims. We have work to do here, and we have moved out.
Homelessness: Veterans lead the nation in homelessness, depression, substance abuse, suicides, and they rank up there in joblessness, as well. Here again, this is an accumulation of neglect. We estimate that 131,000 Veterans live on the streets of this wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world—men and women, young and old, fully functioning and disabled, from every war generation, even the current operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some of them will sleep on the streets here in Louisville tonight.
Six years ago, that number was 195,000, so we think we have the right partners, the right plans, and the right programs in place. We are moving in the right direction to remove this blot on all our consciences.
President Obama and I are committed to ending homelessness among Veterans. We are going to take those 131,000 homeless Veterans off the streets over the next five years. No one, who has served this nation, as we have, should ever find themselves living without care—and without hope. I know that there are never any absolutes in life, but unless we set an ambitious target, we would not be giving this our very best efforts. To do this well, we will have to attack the entire downward spiral that ends in homelessness—we must offer education, jobs, treat depression, fight substance abuse, and offer safe housing. We have to do it all—no missed opportunities in going from 131,000 to zero and keeping it there—education, jobs, mental health, substance abuse, housing.
Education: the President and Senators Jim Webb and John Warner just kicked off our post-9/11 new GI bill program on 3 August. We expect roughly 150,000 Veterans to take part in this fully-funded, degree producing program at a state college or university of their choice this year. An additional 1,100 private institutions have elected to participate in a special arrangement called the Yellow Ribbon Program. This investment in America's future will go on for decades to come.
The first time we did this in 1944, after World War II, our country ended up being richer by 450,000 trained engineers, 240,000 accountants, 238,000 teachers, 91,000 scientists, 67,000 doctors, 22,000 dentists, and a million other college-educated Veterans. They went on to provide the leadership that catapulted our economy to world's largest and our nation to leader of the free world and victor in the Cold War. Lightning is about to strike twice for those, who have answered our nation's call.
Jobs: I recently addressed over 1,700 Veteran small business owners at the fifth annual small business symposium on 21 July. I reminded them that Veterans hire Veterans because they know what they're getting. Customers and partners value their skills, knowledge, and attributes and are eager to work with them.
Just last fall, in a survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management, over 90 percent of employers said they valued Veterans' skills—in particular, their strong sense of responsibility and teamwork.
VA puts Veterans first in our contracting awards because we recognize the on-time, on-budget, quality solutions they bring to our contracting needs. In fiscal year 2008, our unique "Veterans First" buying program resulted in VA's spending more than $2 billion on Veteran-owned small businesses. That represented 15 percent of our procurement dollars—up five percent from the previous year.
During that time, we also doubled our support to service-disabled Veteran-owned businesses. That means 12 percent of our procurement dollars—$1.6 billion of $2 billion expended—was invested here.
At VA, our experience is that Veteran-owned small businesses have high likelihood for creating new jobs, developing new products and services, and building prosperity. As I said earlier, Veterans hire Veterans. So increasing opportunities for Veteran-owned small businesses is an effective way to help address many needs during this economic downturn.
Homeless healthcare: We will spend $3.2 billion next year to prevent and reduce homelessness among Veterans—$2.7 billion on medical services and $500 million on specific homeless programs. With 85 percent of homelessness funding going to healthcare, it means that homelessness is primarily a healthcare issue—heavily burdened with depression and substance abuse. The psychological consequences of combat affect every generation of Veterans. VA now employs 18,000 mental health professionals to address our mental health needs. We know if we diagnose and treat, people usually get better. If we don't, they won't, and sometimes their problems become debilitating. We understand the stigma issue, but we are not going to be dissuaded. We are not giving up on any of our veterans with mental health challenges, and definitely, not the homeless.
Homeless housing: We have approximately 500 partners in nearly every major town and city across the country helping us get homeless Veterans off the streets. With 20,000 HUD-VASH vouchers from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and our $500 million to invest in 2010, to cover safe housing and rehabilitation for Veterans we have been able to coax off the streets, we are going to reduce the number of homeless Veterans next year, and each year thereafter, for the next five.
So, education, jobs, healthcare, and housing: we have work to do here; but we have momentum, and we know where we are headed.
President Obama has charged me with transforming VA into a high-performing 21st century organization. It will be a different organization from the one that exists today.
Five years from now, we intend to be the provider of choice for more of that larger population of 23.4 million Veterans—in insurance, in healthcare, in education, in home loans, in counseling, and in employment.
To achieve this kind of status with Veterans, we must make it easier for them to understand their entitlements and then make it much simpler for them to access their benefits and health care services.
Beyond the five years, we're looking for new ways of thinking and acting. We are asking why, 40 years after Agent Orange was last used in Vietnam, this Secretary is still adjudicating claims for service-connected disabilities related to it. And why 20 years after Desert Storm, we are still debating the debilitating effects of whatever causes Gulf War illness. Left to our present processes, 20 or 40 years from now, some future secretary could be adjudicating service-connected disabilities from our ongoing conflicts. We must do better, and we will.
If you haven't already heard, the Institute of Medicine recently released a new study on a possible link between Agent Orange and heart disease and Parkinson's. We have this study under review now, and I assure you—we will get this right.
Any organization our size is bound to have occasional disappointments, and we have not been spared them in recent months. Many of these issues occurred in the past, but I take full responsibility for fixing them. Some of these disappointments resulted from someone cutting corners, while others were failures in leadership, behavior and professional ethics. And still others were systemic.
These issues will only be resolved when a sense of responsibility, accountability, and discipline is established throughout VA—from my office to the farthest reaches of our footprint. We are your advocates, and we have begun to retrain the workforce.
My remarks this morning comprise a seven-month progress report on the state of your Department of Veterans Affairs. I intend to do this again next year. Much more remains to be done. We need your continued support and assistance if we are to become the provider of choice. My mission is to serve Veterans by increasing their access to our benefits and services, to provide them the highest quality of health care available, and to control costs to the best of my abilities. Doing so will make VA a model of good governance. Doing so will also keep faith with President Lincoln's charge to care for those who have borne the battle and grant them the dignity and respect they deserve until they are laid to rest. That is my mission.
We look for your advice and support in all of these endeavors. Thanks to you, we now have the new post-9/11 GI Bill. Thanks to you, we also have an agreement with Congress on advance appropriations for VA's three medical accounts. Both the House and the Senate Appropriations Committees have recommended advance appropriations for VA medical care for 2011. I know this has been a priority at American Legion for some time, and I'd like to thank you and the Partnership for Veterans Healthcare Budget Reform for your leadership in getting us this far.
Much more remains to be done, and your advice and support continue to be important. For all that you do, you have our deepest respect and thanks.
God bless the men and women who tonight and every other night of the year perform their lonely and demanding missions in the faraway corners of Iraq and Afghanistan. God bless all of you, and God bless our great country.
Thank you.


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December 27, 2013 8:43 am
How good (and how rich) is Tanaka going to be?
As I attempted to digest an enormous Christmas Eve meal, a string of text messages appeared on my phone, all sent around the same time on Tuesday.
December 17, 2013 6:01 am
Ben and Sam talk to Jason Coskrey of The Japan Times about Masahiro Tanaka and the recent changes to the NPB-MLB player posting system.
September 17, 2013 6:00 am
From denim jerseys to Wily Mo Pena Beards, the very best products from NPB's online shops.
Most of our writers didn't enter the world sporting an @baseballprospectus.com address; with a few exceptions, they started out somewhere else. In an effort to up your reading pleasure while tipping our caps to some of the most illuminating work being done elsewhere on the internet, we'll be yielding the stage once a week to the best and brightest baseball writers, researchers, and thinkers from outside of the BP umbrella. If you'd like to nominate a guest contributor (including yourself), please drop us a line.
Michael Clair writes Old Time Family Baseball and contributes to the Platoon Advantage. Follow him on Twitter @clairbearattack.
August 29, 2013 7:12 pm
Wladimir Balentien is threatening to break Japan's single-season home-run record. Does that mean he can hit in the majors?
You might remember Wladimir Balentien from his age 22-24 seasons, when he hit a combined .221/.281/.374 for the Mariners and Reds, or his age-25 season, which he spent with Triple-A Lousville because he was blocked by the barely passable bat of Austin Kearns. Then again, you might not, because your brain has space for only so many baseball players, and Balentien didn't make much of a case for inclusion.
August 29, 2013 6:01 am
Ben and Sam discuss how Wladimir Balentien's explosive season in Japan would translate to the majors, then examine the notion that Billy Beane's teams play better in the second half.
October 3, 2012 6:00 am
Ben and Sam discuss the Mariners' decision to bring in (and lower) Safeco Field's fences, then talk about what the seasons of Tsuyoshi Nishioka and Norichika Aoki say about the difficulty of projecting the performance of Japanese imports.
Ben and Sam discuss the Mariners' decision to bring in (and lower) Safeco Field's fences, then talk about what the seasons of Tsuyoshi Nishioka and Norichika Aoki say about the difficulty of projecting the performance of Japanese imports.
Episode 55: "Shrinking Safeco/The Unpredictability of Japanese Players"
April 17, 2012 3:00 am
The AL West added a couple of the premier international players over the offseason, and both are already contributing to their new teams.
Two high-profile international free agents came to the American League West this year. The two-time defending AL champion Texas Rangers won negotiating rights (with a $51.7 million bid) to Japanese right-hander Yu Darvish in December 2011 and signed him to a six-year, $56 million deal the following month. Meanwhile, the small-market Oakland A's surprised everyone in February by landing Cuban center fielder/Internet sensation Yoenis Cespedes at four years, $36 million.
Darvish was the better-known quantity, having generated buzz well in advance of his U.S. debut, and was expected to contribute right away. Cespedes came with more questions attached, and it wasn't certain that he would break camp with the big club. But he did, and he made an immediate impact, launching a home run in his big-league debut (amusingly enough, played in Japan).
January 18, 2012 3:00 am
After starring for opposing teams in the Japan Series, Wei-Yin Chen and Tsuyoshi Wada will try to adjust to life in Baltimore and last place, as the Orioles react to the new CBA by plugging their pitching holes with Asian imports.
On November 12th, 2011, as Major League Baseball recovers from one of the most exciting World Series in recent memory, Nippon Professional Baseball begins its own best-of-seven championship: the Japan Series.
Much like MLB, Japanese professional baseball has two leagues—the Central and the Pacific—and much like MLB, the champions of those respective leagues play each other to determine a final champion for the entire season. As NPB has only 12 teams compared to to MLB's 30, however, the playoffs are structured a bit differently; with only six teams per league, NPB does not bother with divisions or Wild Cards—the best three teams in each league make the playoffs, with the league's top seed getting a first-round bye. The second and third seeds play a best-of-three series, and the winner faces the first seed in a best-of-five "Climax Series" that's roughly analogous to MLB's League Championship Series. The winning club from each league's Climax Series is that league's champion and advances to the best-of-seven Japan Series to determine which is the best club in NPB. The Climax Series format was implemented first by the Pacific League in 2004 and then adopted by the Central League three years later. Previously, there had been no real postseason in NPB: the team with the best season record from the Central would play the team with the best season record from the Pacific in the Japan Series, and that was that.
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September 20, 2011 10:41 pm
Michael ends his look at Japanese imports with some conclusions and a look at the future of the transpacific player market.
In the Asian Equation series, I've traced the history of the current posting system that imports players from NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball, the Japanese major leagues) and how the success of Ichiro Suzuki has affected it, from the position players who arrived in his wake to the pricey disappointments among starting pitchers and the marginally successful relievers. In this final column, I'll take a look back to draw conclusions from this history and see what we can expect from the NPB market in the future. As with my previous columns, Patrick Newman's advice and ideas were very helpful, as is his website, NPB Tracker.
The simplest, broadest conclusion concerns the players themselves, where we must draw an important distinction between talent and skills. As Craig Brown wrote in the comments section of his article on Tsuyoshi Nishioka, ". . . comparing two middle infielders just because they come from Japan is like comparing two middle infielders just because they come from Delaware." Just because they're from Japan doesn't mean we can draw specific conclusions about individual ballplayers, their talents, or their ability to succeed in Major League Baseball. This goes double for Ichiro, whose skills are idiosyncratic on either side of the Pacific. Throwing money at Japanese players expecting them to be slap hitters with weird batting stances and an uncanny ability to find defensive holes is as foolish as thinking every Venezuelan shortstop will field (and endure) like Omar Vizquel. We can't expect specific players to have certain inherent talents just because they were born in Japan.
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August 4, 2011 12:17 am
In his fifth Asian Equation column, Michael looks at the relievers who have enjoyed modest success--and failure--making the move from Japan to America.
The last group in my analysis of the player's who have migrated to MLB from Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) are the relievers, the least appreciated members of a successful baseball team. Yet, of all NPB imports, they have been the most numerous (explaining the length of this article, for which I apologize in advance) and the cheapest. Diminished quality is the most obvious reason for these extremes, since starters who don't meet MLB standards get shifted to the bullpen, and lesser talents also keep salaries down. Additionally, the typical NPB pitcher's arsenal matches well with an MLB reliever's skillset.
As I discussed in my last Asian Equation article, NPB is a breaking ball league, which translates better to relief than starting. A good breaking ball might fool major league hitters the first or second time they see it in a game, but it probably won't the third or fourth time. As an illustration, here's how batter OPS rises against two of the biggest NPB starting-pitcher busts as compared with three current MLB pitchers: the best, the most mediocre, and an old junkballer. While MLB batters' performance improves against each pitcher the more times they see him in a game, the change is far more dramatic with Matsuzaka and Kawakami.
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July 7, 2011 9:00 am
In his fourth column in the Asian Equation series, Michael looks at the starting pitchers who have crossed the Pacific, in which many failures are punctuated with a few very notable successes.
In the flood of players coming from Japan, the majority (34 of 43) have been pitchers. Unlike the pursuit of the next Ichiro I described in my previous column, this has less to do with the success of Hideo Nomo than it does with the pitching market–pitching is a difficult commodity to find in any league. What has doomed many NPB starters in MLB, however, has been both talent and adjustment to a different pitching philosophy. To understand and explain the differences between the two, I've drawn not only on my own expertise, but relied on Japanese pitching expert Patrick Newman at NPB Tracker for additional insight.
Pitching differences reflect a deeper philosophical difference between Japanese and American baseball. As I discussed in my first Asian Equation column, Japanese culture appreciates baseball's emphasis on discipline, sacrifice, and the dramatic showdown between pitcher and batter. Instead of putting a batter away quickly, NPB pitchers build tension by indiscriminately filling counts before a perfectly placed strike three resolves the battle. These aren't seen as "wasted" pitches, instead reflecting the samurai-like virtues of endurance and dramatic battles.
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June 8, 2011 9:00 am
In his third column on Japanese-American player movement, Michael looks at the position players who followed in the wake of the unique Ichiro Suzuki.
Thus far in the Asian Equation series, I've explained the early history of Japanese-American baseball traffic which lead to the posting system and the signing of Ichiro Suzuki, who is among the most idiosyncratic players in either league. As we discussed in the comments section, the success of one unique player from Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) doesn't mean that all of them can succeed, a logical fallacy that has eluded many baseball executives.
Although the feeding frenzy has declined lately, the last decade was marked by many teams gambling on the next Eastern import, hoping for another Ichiro to take them to the next level. A few players have succeeded, collecting World Series rings and postseason acclaim, but many of them have simply survived—a dream for any player, but not what the general managers were laying out serious cash for.
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"A man with no belly has no appetite for life."
- Salman Rushdie
Ladies beat South Dakota St 83-68 today in their 1st round. Courtney Moses hit 9 3s. While not exactly something to hang your hat on, the Purdue men and women are on a combined 29 game NCAA 1st round win streak. 15 for the women and 14 for the men.
Hummel had the lowest turnover percentage in the country this year, Byrd had the 8th lowest. Pretty impressive considering their usage rates.
Anyone watching the stretch run of Murray v Marquette? Is it me or do both teams look pretty horrible?
Too early to get excited, but obviously this is the kind of start Purdue wanted.
Kansas killing us on the offensive boards.
Last edited by Dab; 03-18-2012 at 09:07 PM.
Back to Friday's game . . . God bless Terone Johnson, he's had a great 2nd half of the season, he's going to be a key player for us the next two seasons, and he carried the Boilermakers on his shoulders for a good part of the game against St. Mary's, but have you ever seen a player so out of it on such a key sequence of the game? With about 30 seconds left, Purdue has the ball and has just lost the lead, trailing by one. Terone has the ball top of the key right, and first palms the ball (which goes uncalled) and then does some weird spinning move and gets called for the travel (while simultaneously losing the ball.) He had played so well up to that point it seemed to me that he felt he had to carry the team to victory and I think the pressure got to him. Fortunately, on the Gaels' ensuing inbound attempt, the Aussie kid really bailed out Terone by traveling. On Purdue's next possession, Lewis Jackson did his thing, got fouled, and nailed the free throws, and Purdue was able to hold on.
Purdue went out and played a tough first half, but they're going to have maintain energy and bring it again in the second half.
If we're going out, Robbie's going out in a blaze of glory
Use everything you have left Robbie!
We can ****ing win this game. We have to stay solid.
Robinson is getting great calls
Painter really going deep down the bench in this game
LewJack won't get calls. He has to make the layups
Yes! Painter is out coaching Self.
Painter doing everything he can to hopefully save for some energy for the last four minutes. Somebody, be it Robbie or someone else is going to have to step up now and make some shots.
Two straight horrendous offensive possessions for Purdue there. Nothing but dribbling.
Well... This is your career Robbie. What do you have left?
Choke job.


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Teen techpreneur Nick D'Aloisio who sold his news digest app to Yahoo for £18 million has won Apple's most prestigious award.
The 18-year-old King's College student received Apple's Design Award at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco on Monday.
He said: "To be recognised a second time by Apple, a company that has inspired millions of developers around the world to understand that simplicity can create enduring beauty, is something we are incredibly proud of."
The Wimbledon whizz-kid has balanced his school work with conferences in London and LA since joining Yahoo to build the Yahoo News Digest app last year.
Launched in February, the UK edition of Yahoo News Digest delivers twice-daily digests of the top ten news stories identified by editors and algorithms.
Mr D'Aloisio, currently taking his A-Levels at King's College School in Wimbledon, was in San Francisco for the awards ceremony.
Just after the event he tweeted: "Proud to announce we just won the 2014 Apple Design award for Yahoo News Digest here at WWDC!!! :)"


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HERSHEY – Armani Ford had one last scamper to make on the Hersheypark Stadium field after Clairton won yet another state title.
"Hey, where are the medals at?" the senior exclaimed with a wide grin, as he ran through a sideline full of happy teammates following the Bears' 20-0 shutout Friday of Dunmore.
Ford threw for one touchdown, ran for another and Clairton won its 63rd straight game by stuffing Dunmore's power-rushing attack to take its fourth straight PIAA Class A championship.
Fellow senior standout Tyler Boyd added a 5-yard rushing score to help Clairton (16-0) become just the third program in state history to win four consecutive titles, joining Berwick and Southern Columbia.
"Wow, that is so amazing to me," coach Tom Nola said about the win streak. "I've got great assistant coaches. I've got great players that are athletic – they're the ones who go out there and play."
The speedy Bears were just as tough defensively in stuffing the Bucks (14-2). Dunmore's best series of the afternoon ended after linebacker Robert Boatright sacked Brandon Kujawski on fourth-and-7 from the 26 midway through the fourth quarter.
Austin Seamon had 12 carries for 45 yards, while Daiqwon Buckley had 16 for 44 for Dunmore, which had entered Friday averaging 27.5 points per game.
Boyd added an interception, too, while playing safety – though it's his offensive skills that are making college coaches take notice. Three Penn State assistant coaches watched from the sideline.
Boyd did his best to impress in rushing for 117 yards on 20 carries and catching three passes for 50 yards.
"Outstanding athlete. You can see why he's a Division I football player," Dunmore coach Jack Henzes said. "And they've got some other players who are pretty good, too."
Ford tore through the Dunmore defense all day, finishing 10-of-18 passing for 150 yards and running nine times for 45 yards.
Clairton's fans started celebrating early after Ford's 29-yard touchdown run with 4:06 left gave Clairton a 20-point lead.
Not even two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties at the end of the play – forcing Clairton to kick off from its own 12 – could dampen the mood.
Dunmore returned the ensuing kickoff to the Clairton 26 – only to fumble the ball away back to the Bears with 4 minutes to go.
Clairton's success has garnered national attention – and not just because of the remarkable 63-game win streak. Football has become a rallying point for the western Pennsylvania, blue-collar town in tough economic times.
Hundreds of Bears fans wearing black and orange roared their approval from the stands on a cold but sunny afternoon in Hershey.
"That's every day – without them we wouldn't be as hype as we were coming into this game," Boyd said.
Clairton held the ball for more than 30 minutes and held decisive advantages in total yards (282-79) and first downs (23-6).
But Henzes wants his team to remember the season overall, not the last game.
"They did a great job for us all year. I know they're disappointed but at the same time we hope that they're going to learn from this experience and try to make themselves better persons," he said.
All that attention over the win streak didn't put more pressure on the Bears, Ford said.
"We've been playing football for the last 20 weeks," he said as his teammates celebrated around him. "It's been a lot of fun."
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Option Prices and Earnings
Posted on Thursday, February 6, 2014 at 2:48 PM
With earnings season in full gear and major players like Priceline.com and Tesla ready to announce soon, it is probably a good time to review how option prices are influenced.
Perhaps the most easily understood of the options price influences is the price of the underlying. All stock traders are familiar with the impact of the underlying stock price alone on their trades. The technical and fundamental analyses of the underlying stock price action are well beyond the scope of this discussion, but it is sufficient to say it is one of the three pricing factors and probably the most familiar to traders learning to trade.
The price influence of time is easily understood in part because it is the only one of the forces restricted to unidirectional movement. The main reason that time impacts option positions significantly is a result of the existence of time (extrinsic) premium. Depending on the risk profile of the option strategy established, the passage of time can impact the trade either negatively or positively.
The third price influence is perhaps the most important. It is without question the most neglected and overlooked component; implied volatility. Because we are in the midst of earnings season, it can become even a greater influence over the price of options than usual. Implied volatility taken together with time defines the magnitude of the extrinsic option premium. The value of implied volatility is generally inversely correlated to price of the underlying and represents the aggregate trader's view of the future volatility of the underlying. Because implied volatility responds to the subjective view of future volatility, values can ebb and flow as a result of upcoming events expected to impact price (e.g. earnings, FDA decisions, etc.).
New traders beginning to become familiar with the world of options trading should spend a fair amount of time learning the impact of each of these options pricing influences. The options markets can be ruthlessly unforgiving to those who choose to ignore them especially over an earnings announcement.
John Kmiecik
Senior Options Instructor
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Sue McDougal serves as the student advisor to international students on immigration matters, as well as provides orientation, counseling, and transitional programs for new students. She offers assistance to students with English as a Second Language.
Dean McDougal produces a special International Student Handbook as well as a weekly Newsletter. She sponsors a coffee hour for the international community every Friday afternoon during the academic year. Dean McDougal also works closely with the International Club and the Pugh Center Alliance.


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Twister leaves swath of ruin
Tornado packs winds up to 140 mph along 7 miles in rural area
Updated 12:32 pm, Tuesday, May 27, 2014
National Weather Service meteorologists Steve DiRienzo and Vasil Koleci surveyed damage to properties for about 30 minutes Friday before amassing enough data to confirm that a twister had ripped through rural Schenectady County less than 24 hours earlier.
DiRienzo made the "rain-wrapped" tornado official around 10 a.m. Friday before the pair of meteorologists got to the epicenter at 7338 Western Turnpike where the home of Margaret "Peggy" Krylowicz lay in ruins.
The severity of destruction at the site led the National Weather Service to rate the tornado an EF3 with maximum winds estimated at 140 mph, while other parts of Duanesburg were rated EF1 or less with gusts of up to 110 mph.
An EF5 is the strongest rating assigned to tornadoes.
More Information
The National Weather Service said the tornado made landfall at the intersection of Route 30 and Duanesburg Churches Road and traveled just southeast of the intersection of Crow Hill and Bozenhilll roads in Knox in northwestern Albany County.
The agency said during the tornado, which cut a path about 7 miles long from 3:33 p.m. to 3:55 p.m. Thursday, numerous homes, farms, trees, vehicles and utility wires were damaged, but there were no reported injuries or deaths.
Across the road from the rubble of Krylowicz's house for 25 years, pink insulation hung from trees. A riding lawn mower and a snowblower and other outdoor equipment that had been stored in a shed wound up in a wooded area 100 feet away.
A wheelbarrow and part of a weed trimmer were among the garden items lining the lip of the driveway to be loaded into a waiting trailer.
Krylowicz's son, Jeff Bivins, 46, spent Thursday night at his mother's property to make sure it wasn't looted.
He marveled at the power of the storm.
"I looked over and saw the lawn mower sticking up several feet in the air and asked myself, 'What in the heck is this?'" Bivins said, expressing thanks that his 69-year-old mother wasn't sitting in her recliner by the window when the tornado flattened the residence. "I'm so glad my mother was picking up my wife and son in Sharon Springs when this happened."
He knew the outcome could have been a lot worse than the material damage.
"My mother is fine, and her dogs are fine," he said. "We just have to get this stuff replaced."
His brother, Bruce, 48, said his mother hoped to recover a few keepsakes, including a plate with the picture of her granddaughter, Brianna, who died in 2005.
"That's the one big thing that she's worried about," the son said. "She also has a sentimental cross necklace she hopes to recover, and we can't find that either."
Nearby, Darlene Pettit, 58, lost fences and maple trees at her farm on Western Turnpike. Her daughter Alyssa, 21, who is home from college, rescued Krylowicz's German shepherd when it showed up at the home. A second dog, a dachshund named Missy also survived.
Petit said her daughter saw baseball-size hail and witnessed the tornado as it did its damage.
"She watched it go down Route 20, serpentine around the house, go behind the barn, come around the other side of my husband's garage, and then it blew through the other lady's house," said Petit, who ditched her car and started walking when she discovered Route 20 was closed. It took her an hour to make it home.
"The name of my farm is Maple Shade, and now there's no more maple shade," said Petit. "I spent all day Wednesday doing my mulch, trimming everything and making this all look nice, and 24 hours later, oh my God, what a mess! But we'll get through it."
Volunteers Mikala Smith of Esperance and Hussan Abdulmagid of Duanesburg pored through the debris forming piles of wallboard, insulation and plywood mixed with some furniture at Krylowicz's place.
Smith said she wanted to help Krylowicz out because she "is the only person in our community who really lost anything."
Smith knew the feeling. She said her house was ruined by Tropical Storm Irene in 2011.
Abdulmagid, a construction worker, said it was not easy to sort through the wreckage because they don't know what the family wants to keep.
Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara of Rotterdam visited with Krylowicz and her family and pledged his support.
Krylowicz, who said she had lost another home to a fire, hasn't decided if she will rebuild.
"It's really overwhelming," she said.
Bob Gardinier, Kate Seckinger and Emily Brower contributed. firstname.lastname@example.com • 518-454-5347 • @apaulnelson


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Manufacturer Details
Steffy Wood manufactures commercial quality wood furniture for use in childcare and early learning centers. Their extensive line of children's products includes sand and water tables, dramatic play furniture, easels, activity tables, and kids' furniture. Steffy Wood also produces a wide range of changing tables, storage cubbies, kids' lockers, classroom tables and chairs, book shelves, and book display units. All Steffy Wood Products are built to last with solid hardwood construction and long-lasting, non-toxic finishes with rounded corners and smooth edges for safety. Steffy Wood Products is dedicated manufacturing wooden furniture and toys that will contribute to improving the development of all children.


text: +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | TPWD News Release 20050523e | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | This page contains only plain text, no HTML formatting codes. | | It is not designed for display in a browser but for copying | | and editing in whatever software you use to lay out pages. | | To copy the text into an editing program: | | --Display this page in your browser. | | --Select all. | | --Copy. | | --Paste in a document in your editing program. | | If you have any suggestions for improving these pages, send | | an e-mail to email@example.com and mention Plain Text Pages. | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ [ Note: This item is more than 12 years old. Please take the publication date into consideration for any date references. ] [ Media Contact: TPWD News, firstname.lastname@example.com, 512-389-8030 ] [TH] May 23, 2005 Research To Document Agricultural Value of Bats UVALDE, Texas -- This month a team of scientists from Boston University, University of Tennessee, U.S. Department of Agriculture and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department will return to the Winter Garden agricultural production area near here for the second year of a five-year research project funded by a $2.4 million National Science Foundation grant. The research seeks to better estimate numbers of Mexican free-tailed bats in Texas and to determine the dollar contribution of bats to protect corn, cotton and other crops against insect infestation. Early indications are that bats are worth millions of dollars in avoided pesticide use, which also benefits the natural environment. The Mexican free-tailed bat (also known as the Brazilian free-tailed bat) is a 12-gram mammal that calls Texas home from March to October, when it migrates back to Mexico for the winter months. It is primarily females that migrate to Texas to take advantage of the massive numbers of insects, especially moths that lay eggs on local crops upon which the newly hatched larvae feed. Subsequent generations of adult moths migrate through Texas on their way to the Corn Belt of the Midwest. While in Texas a female bat gives birth to a single pup. During this time, hungry mother bats can eat up to two-thirds of their body weight in insects each night. Scientists say that when you do the math for 100 million bats, the tonnage of insects consumed each night is staggering. This spring and summer bat researchers will track the movement of moth caterpillars, especially the corn earworm moth, through a series of host plants that begins in Texas wildflowers and then proceeds to corn and cotton. Other scientists will determine what percentage of a bat's diet is made up of key agricultural pests. And, using infrared thermal imaging cameras, computer experts are creating software to count bats as they emerge from their cave roosts and forage over crop fields. "Besides the opportunity to view spectacular bat emergences from Hill Country caves and bridges, this research shows Texans have even more to appreciate about bats," said Patricia Morton, who is coordinating bat media outreach and public education for TPWD. "For these very good reasons, the Mexican free-tailed just happens to be the official Texas State Flying Mammal." Morton says the department will be producing bilingual educational products about the bat research project including a Video/DVD and children's book. For more information, contact Morton at email@example.com or (512)912-7020. The current research developed after the advent of National Weather Service radar in Central Texas in the early 1990s, when weather forecasters picked up mysterious large "clouds" in areas where no storm activity was expected. The clouds turned out to be millions of bats emerging from cave roosts. Soon after this discovery, another National Weather Service radar service became operational in southern Texas and detected additional strange clouds that were intersected by the bats at altitudes of thousands of feet. These were found to be clouds of millions of migrating moths-a favorite food of free-tailed bats. A few years later, following a variety of studies incorporating bat detection devices riding on weather balloons, insect identification from bat guano and the development of genetic markers for moth species, scientists were able to document that the Mexican free-tailed bats were feeding on some of the state's most damaging agricultural pests, those which feed largely on cotton and corn. Meanwhile, growing tourism to see dusk emergences of large bat colonies continues to spread. All told each year in Texas, tens of thousands of people witness clouds of bats spiraling out of caves at places like Devil's Sinkhole State Natural Area near Rocksprings, Old Tunnel Wildlife Management Area near Fredericksburg, Bracken Cave north of San Antonio, and the Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin, home to the world's largest urban bat colony. More information about bats and where to see them in Texas is on the Bat Conservation International Web site. --- On the Net: http://www.batcon.org/ -30-


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News Release
Media Contact: TPWD News, firstname.lastname@example.com, 512-389-8030
April 24, 2006
Texas State Parks Damaged by Rita Making a Comeback
AUSTIN, Texas — For the first time since Hurricane Rita ripped through east Texas last September, destroying much in its path and forcing several state parks to shut down, one site is welcoming campers again and another is planning to open soon.
Martin Dies Jr. State Park near Jasper welcomed back hundreds of visitors over the Easter holiday weekend after being closed for repairs, maintenance and cleanup for more than six months. A partial reopening of Village Creek State Park near Lumberton about 60 miles to the south is expected by summer.
The majority of campsites at Martin Dies Jr.'s Hen House Ridge unit, one of three park units on O. A. Steinhagen Reservoir, were occupied over the busy holiday weekend, according to park manager Dan Odom. The swimming beach, too, saw plenty of action.
Odom said 31 water-and-electric campsites, 19 screened shelters, a mini-cabin and 35 water-only campsites in the Hen House Ridge unit are available for overnight camping.
"We did about $6,000 worth of business over the Easter weekend," he said.
Much of the money for repairs thus far have come from the sale of timber salvaged from the park's numerous old growth pines and hardwoods felled by the hurricane-force winds and torrential rains. Odom estimates the state park lost about 30 percent of its timber and suffered $500,000 worth of damage. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has agreed to reimburse 75 percent of the cost to repair the park.
Hardest hit was the Walnut Unit just across U. S. Highway 190, where 75 water-and-electric sites remain unusable, 20 screen shelters were smashed and a mini-cabin was crushed by fallen timber. In all, Martin Dies Jr. State Park has 227 campsites. Odom said he hopes to have the Walnut Unit's group dining hall, boat ramp and fishing pier back in operation by May, though campsites will remain closed until repairs can be made.
For more information, contact Martin Dies Jr. State Park at (409) 384-5231.
At Village Creek State Park, park officials are shooting for a May 1 opening of 19 of its 25 water-and-electric campsites, as well as the children's playground, cabin, group picnic pavilion, 4 out of 15 picnic sites and 2 of its 8 miles of trails. The Customer Service Center in Austin (512-389-8900) is accepting camping reservations at Village Creek for June 1 and after.
"We were lucky structure-wise," said park manager Jerry Rashall, "but we lost about 50 percent of our trees. Three tornadoes touched down, one 25 yards from the park residence."
Rashall said he hopes to have the rest of the picnic area, the walk-in campground and remainder of the trails open before the end of the summer. For the latest information, contact the park at (409) 755-7322.
Farther south along the Gulf Coast, Sea Rim State Park and Sabine Pass State Historic Site, both of which suffered serious damage to their facilities, remain closed until funds for repairs can be identified, said Jerry Hopkins, director of state parks for southeast Texas.
Martin Dies Jr.'s Odom summed it up best for state parks in east Texas: "We've come a long way, but we still have a long way to go."
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text: Smell the Coffee: Sandy before painting By Karin Fuller November 3, 2012 Story Share CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- In spite of all the weather warnings, I really hadn't expected to end up home from work on Tuesday. I can't recall the last time I had an unplanned day off that didn't involve chicken soup and a box of tissues, so I was determined to make the most of it.While my daughter slept (and slept and slept), I found a can of white paint and took on some nicked-up baseboards. Which, of course, led to repainting a dinged-up door. And then some shabby window frames. And then the wall surrounding the window.All this, of course, made the cabinets look decrepit, so I found a second can of paint and took them on next.The room was beginning to look pretty sharp. Except for the chairs.I repainted the chairs.Then the base of the table.By this point, I was thoroughly exhausted, so I headed to my bedroom to take a short nap. Except there's this new thing in my bedroom -- a recently added water feature. I know fountains are the rage and all, and the sound of running water is supposed to provide a lulling to sleep, but when the fountain is centered directly above the bed and comes by way of a water-soaked ceiling, it's hard to generate much enthusiasm for its presence.The evening before, I'd been too tired to deal, so I'd shoved my bed practically into the closet to avoid the leak. But that had been a late-night desperation move. I knew it needed relocated completely. What better time to do that than during a day off from work? Disassembling and moving my large and extraordinarily heavy antique iron bed was no small feat, especially considering that I needed a place to move it to. So before I could even begin, I first needed to empty the dining room, which would serve as my makeshift bedroom until the ceiling was fixed.As I slogged my way through moving the furniture, I became more and more tired, and less and less careful. That I survived moving my massive old television without either breaking it or pancaking myself was a miracle. It took a little less than two hours, but eventually, the move was complete.Except much of my furniture had been badly dinged during the move.So I pulled out the paint to touch up the nicks.And then I noticed the baseboards.And the door frame.And the window trim. If you hear of a South Charleston fatality blamed on Hurricane Sandy, now you know the story behind it.Reach Karin Fuller at firstname.lastname@example.com. Story Share Story Share Trending Now 1 Facebook founder visits Cabin Creek Health Systems 2 Teen pleads guilty to voluntary manslaughter in Oakes Field shooting 3 'Report for America' pilot project begins in Appalachia 4 Rhode Island bank claims Justice companies owe $4.2M on helicopter loan 5 Congressional opioid investigation targets drug wholesaler Miami-Luken Spam folder comments are rattling wonderful Previous Story Arts Notes: Nov. 4, 2012 Next Story


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For the second time since January 2000, weekly imports of crude oil into the United States fell below 7.0 million barrels per day (bbl/d) during the week ending January 10 (Figure 1), before rebounding slightly the following week. The reduction in crude imports reflected lower purchases by refiners ahead of maintenance season, as well as the continuing rise in domestic production that is displacing imported crude oil.
Higher domestic crude oil production has been a key driver of reduced crude imports in recent years. U.S. crude oil production averaged 5.7 million bbl/d in 2011. Since then, crude oil production has grown 1.7 million bbl/d to an average of 7.4 million bbl/d through October 2013 (the last month for which monthly data are available). Over the same period, imports have fallen 1.2 million bb/d to average 7.7 million bbl/d during the first 10 months of 2013.
The recent drop in imports fits squarely into that trend, with weekly data indicating the decline picked up steam in the final months of 2013 and continued into January 2014. Data from EIA's Weekly Petroleum Status Report indicate domestic crude oil production averaged more than 8.1 million bbl/d for the four weeks ending January 17, which, if confirmed in the monthly data, would represent growth of more than 370,000 bbl/d since October.
While growing production continues to push the absolute level of imports lower, seasonal factors are also partially responsible for the decline in crude oil imports. The declines reflected in recent weekly data are likely the result of decreased crude buying ahead of refinery maintenance season. Average imports typically fall about 300,000 bbl/d from the end of October through the second week of January, a decline similar to the drop in four-week average imports observed in most recent weekly data over that period. EIA's January Short-Term Energy Outlook projects crude oil inputs at U.S. refineries to average 14.7 million bbl/d in February, down from almost 16.0 million bbl/d in December 2013.
The decline in crude oil imports is not uniform across regions.Declines are most pronounced in PADD 3 (Gulf Coast) and PADD 1 (East Coast), while crude imports into PADD 2 (Midwest) continue to increase (Figure 2). Despite crude oil production growth in the Midwest, mostly from North Dakota's Bakken tight oil formation, Midwest refineries are processing increased amounts of crude oil imported from Canada. In recent years, several Midwest refineries have made investments to process more heavy Canadian oil. Most notable among these investments is the recently completed coker at BP's 399,000-bbl/d Whiting, Indiana, refinery near Chicago. For the four weeks ending January 17, Midwest crude oil imports averaged 1.9 million bbl/d, just under the record of 2.0 million bbl/d set during the four weeks ending March 1, 2013. As Midwest refineries take additional Canadian crude, growing production from the Bakken formation is increasingly moving via railroad to the East and West Coasts. East Coast refineries have increased their rail receipts of Bakken crude substantially over the past year. This increase in Bakken shipments has helped reduce import requirements at the East Coast refineries, which are generally more suited to run light sweet grades than are refineries in other parts of the country. In three separate weeks during the past two months, crude oil imports into PADD 1 have averaged less than 500,000 bbl/d, the only three times imports have been that low since EIA began collecting PADD-level import data in 1990. Currently, rail shipments to the West Coast are smaller than they are to the East Coast. Thus, West Coast imports are only slightly under the five-year average level.
Gulf Coast crude imports are also near multi year lows. Gulf Coast refineries are located close to the two fastest growing tight oil formations, the Eagle Ford and Permian. Crude oil from these basins is also generally of light sweet quality. However, because it is less economic to ship Eagle Ford and Permian basin production to the U.S. demand centers for light sweet crude oil on the East Coast, more Eagle Ford and Permian crude oil is being processed in Gulf Coast refineries, replacing imported crude.
Gasoline and diesel fuel prices fall
The U.S. average retail price of regular gasoline decreased three cents to $3.30 per gallon as of January 20, 2014, two cents lower than last year at this time. Prices decreased in all regions of the nation with the largest decrease coming in the Midwest, where the price was five cents lower than last week at $3.20 per gallon. The West Coast price fell three cents to $3.49 per gallon and the East Coast price was $3.39 per gallon, a drop of two cents from last week. The Gulf Coast price lost a penny to total $3.10 per gallon while the Rocky Mountain price decreased less than a cent to remain at $3.15 per gallon.
The national average diesel fuel price fell one cent to $3.87 per gallon, three cents lower than last year at this time. The East Coast price increased a penny to $3.95 per gallon while prices in all other regions of the nation fell. The West Coast and Rocky Mountain prices both dropped three cents to $3.97 per gallon and $3.86 per gallon, respectively. The Midwest price was $3.83 per gallon, a decrease of two cents, and on the Gulf Coast, the price lost a penny to $3.77 per gallon.
U.S. propane stocks fell by 3.4 million barrels to end at 35.3 million barrels last week, 25.6 million barrels (42.1%) lower than a year ago. Midwest regional inventories dropped by 1.3 million barrels and Gulf Coast inventories decreased by 1.2 million barrels. East Coast inventories dropped by 0.5 million barrels and Rocky Mountain/West Coast inventories decreased by 0.3 million barrels. Propylene non-fuel-use inventories represented 10.3% of total propane inventories.


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Mail: Thanks for helping Aiden
Brewer at the Legislature: Mob rule
More opinion
Robertson and Delsing re-elected chair, vice chair of NWB
Goat Expo set first October weekend
More Ag News
A lot of the money for a new electronic directory at the North Platte Cemetery has been raised but there is a ways to go, the city council learned Tuesday.
Coleman said fundraising is well underway, with donations amounting to $10,140. But, she said at least $25,000 is needed.
Coleman spoke to the council at a work session.
She said the Mid Nebraska Community Foundation donated in May, adding to donations from individuals, memorials and NebraskaLand National Bank.
Coleman said that the Genealogical Society has also raised money at bake sales in November and May during the librarys book sales. Another bake said will be held in November, she said.
During the Memorial Day weekend, volunteers from the society helped people find graves at the cemetery. They collected $300 in donations for the courtesy, and received many favorable comments too, Coleman said. Also, the group recently applied for a grant from the Union Pacific Railroad Foundation, which they hope to receive early next year.
Councilwoman Judy Pedersen asked Coleman to let the council know how the grant turns out. She said the council might consider a contributing grant from the city.
Steve Richman of Windy Prairie Systems, Inc. demonstrated a miniature version of the electronic directory, with a map. The directory operates with a touch screen and gives verbal instructions to users to pinpoint graves. It can be programmed to display pictures of the deceased, memorial dedications and other special features.
This project would re-purpose a portion of the small building near the east entrance, off Rodeo Road. Software to manage and update the data base would be purchased, Coleman said.
Donations are tax deductible and can be made to the North Platte Cemetery Directory Fund, c/o the North Platte Genealogical Society, or to the Mid-Nebraska Community Foundation, she said. The funds are accumulating with the Mid-Nebraska Community Foundation and are drawing interest.
Flatrock Publishing, Inc.
1300 E 4th St., Suite F
North Platte, NE 69101


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iFact #36 - Computer Icons - A Brief History and Further Information
On computer displays, a computer icon is a small pictogram. Icons have been used to supplement the normal alphanumerics of the computer. Modern computers now can handle bitmapped graphics on the display terminal, so the icons are widely used to assist users.
Icons were first developed as a tool for making computer interfaces easier for novices to grasp in the 1970s at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center facility. Icon-driven interfaces were later popularized by the Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows operating environments.
A computer icon usually ranges from 16 by 16 pixels up to 128 by 128 pixels. Some operating systems feature icons up to 512 by 512 pixels. When the graphical output device has a smaller size, the icon size is small. Vision-impaired users (due to such conditions as poor lighting, tired eyes, medical impairments, bright backgrounds, or color blindness) may need to utilize the self-selected icon size options.
The Icons Rold in Interaction with the User
Icons may represent a file, folder, application or device on a computer operating system. In modern usage today, the icon can represent anything that the users want it to: any macro command or process, mood-signaling, or any other indicator. User friendliness also demands error-free operation, where the icons are distinct from each other, self-explanatory, and easily visible under all possible user setups.
Icons may also be found on the desktop, toolbars and in the menus of computer application software such as Microsoft Word. Icons are made more user-friendly by being very distinct from every other icon. Each icon set may also have unifying features that reveal that similar icons are related to each other. Icons commonly show those traits in manners such as these:
1. Contrasting Sizes
2. Composition (large or small area, top/bottom, left/right, centered/perimeter)
3. Pattern-contrast (Horizontal-striped, vertical-striped, slanted-stripes, circles, oblongs ...)
4. Light-on-dark, or dark-on-light icons
5. Framed and/or shadowed icons
6. Color contrasts
7. Fine-detail (with thin lined drawings)
8. Animation (Animated Gifs are a popular example)
Virtually every major computer operating system has the ability to use an icon-based graphical user interface (GUI) to display information to end users; this is evident in the usage of the term "icon" in the WIMP computing paradigm (for Windows, Icons, Menu, Pointers).
Function or Program Icons
On this screen, icons are used in many ways: to represent files, folders and disk drives, as toolbar buttons, and to illustrate menu items and taskbar items.
Most computer functions in a GUI are represented by a function icon. Placing the cursor on the icon, and clicking (or double-clicking) a mouse, trackball or other button starts the function or program.
The creation of a good function icon can be considered an art form in itself, comparable to that practiced in the past in the domain of miniature painting by old masters such as Joseph Severn and Charles-Francois Daubigny.
The icon must be original, distinctive and tiny. It must be useful on a wide variety of monitors set at different resolutions. This work is further complicated by the need to create several sets of function icons for several types of views in several types of operating systems, for any given program. For instance, the GUI guidelines in one operating system might specify the need to create sets of 16, 32, and 48 pixel icons for any program while the GUI guidelines in another system might specify sets of 16, 24, 48 and 96 pixel icons.
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Evolution Hoax
The Messenger of Allah (saas) said: "… a man [Hazrat Mahdi (as)] of the people of Medina (a big city)will come forth to Mecca. People will bring him out against his will and swear allegiance to him between the Corner and the Maqam. … (Mari' bin Yusuf Karami Hanbali, Fawaid Fawaid al-Fikr fil Mahdi al-Montazar)
And on 69th page of Risalat al-Khuruj al-Mahdi, it is mentioned that Hazrat Mahdi (as) "will come from the village of Kara."(Risalat al-Khuruj al-Mahdi, p. 69)
The word "medina" is used in a metaphorical sense in the hadiths handed down from the Prophet (saas). In other words, our Prophet (saas) uses the word medina to mean very different things. There are many large cities or "medinas" in the Islamic world. For that reason, one can only tell in what sense the word medina is being used by looking at other accounts on the subject.
In the hadith cited above, our Prophet (saas) says that Hazrat Mahdi (as) will come from medina, whereas in another hadith he says that Hazrat Mahdi (as) "will come from the village of Kara."Imam al-Qurtubi's at-Tazkirah refers to Hazrat Mahdi (as) coming from the western part of the Islamic countries. This statement shows that the large city in which Hazrat Mahdi (as) will be born is in the western part of the Islamic nations.
In another hadith, our Prophet (saas) tells his interlocutor that Hazrat Mahdi (as) will perform the spiritual capture of medina, in other words, a big city. In the account, because there were many medinas (or big cities), the person speaking to the Prophet (saas) was uncertain which medina, in other words which big city, Hazrat Mahdi (as) would achieve the spiritual conquest of. He therefore asked the Prophet (saas) which medina (or big city) he meant.
The Prophet (saas) answered that this medina (city) was Constantinople (Istanbul).
Narrated by ibn Amr, who said: "… The Messenger of Allah (saas) said, 'Six things will happen to this community: … The sixth is the conquest of medina.' I asked, 'O Messenger of Allah, which medina?' He said, 'Constantinople [Istanbul].'" [This is the spiritual conquest of Istanbul by Hazrat Mahdi (as).] (Al-Barzanji, Al-Isha'ah li-ashrat al-sa'ah, p. 204; Ahmad Diya ad-Din al-Kamushkhanawi, Ramuz al-Ahadith 1/296)
Therefore, the word medina is used by the Prophet (saas) in this hadith in the sense of a great city in order to refer to Istanbul. Another hadith reveals that Hazrat Mahdi (as) will emerge from the city that contains the sacred relics, including the sacred banner of our Prophet (saas). The banner and other sacred relics of the Prophet (saas) are currently kept in a special section of Istanbul's Topkapi Palace.
It is related from Abdullah ibn Shurafa that: Hazrat Mahdi (as) will have the banner of our Prophet (saas) with him. (Al-Muttaqi al-Hindi, Al-Burhan fi Alamat al-Mahdi Akhir az-Zaman, p. 65)
He [Hazrat Mahdi (as)] will appear with the camel hair banner of the Prophet (saas). That banner has four corners, is unstitched and black in color. There is a halo on it. It has not been unfurled since the death of the Messenger of Allah (saas), but it will be opened when Hazrat Mahdi (as) appears.(Al-Muttaqi al-Hindi, Al-Burhan fi Alamat al-Mahdi Akhir az-Zaman, p. 23)
As for signs, he [Hazrat Mahdi (as)] will have with him the shirt, the sword, and the banner of the Messenger of Allah (saas). That banner has never been unfurled since the death of the Prophet (saas). And, it will not be unfurled until the appearance of Hazrat Mahdi (as). (Al-Barzanji, Al-Isha'ah li-ashrat al-sa'ah, p. 164)
It appears from the above hadiths that the sacred relics of our Prophet (saas) are where Hazrat Mahdi (as) is, and that the banner will be opened up when he appears. Since the sacred relics are in Istanbul, it is clear that Hazrat Mahdi (as) will be in Istanbul, too.
However, one can also see from looking at other accounts that the city of Hazrat Mahdi's (as) birth and the city in the west of the Islamic world is a different medina or city from the one that he will spiritually conquer. For example, it can be seen from the description in this hadith that the city that Hazrat Mahdi (as) will capture, Istanbul, is one in which a dry path will be opened up in the sea, in other words, in which a bridge system will be used.
During the conquest of Constantinople he [Hazrat Mahdi (as)] will plant a standard when he goes to make ablution for the morning prayer, and the water will divide in two and withdraw from him. He will cross to the other side through this path that opens and say, "O people, learn from this. The sea has parted its waters for us, just as it did for the tribe of Israel." They will utter the takbir again and again and with twelve takbirs the twelve towers of the city will collapse. (Ibn Hajar al-Haythami, Al-Qawl al-Mukhtasar fi `Alamat al-Mahdi al-Muntadhar, p. 57)
The hadith also states that Hazrat Mahdi (as) will plant a standard in this city, making it clear that the city is the one that contains the sacred banner of our Prophet (saas).


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Info: Been playing for almost 14 years,but didn't get real serious about it until 2 years ago.I've tried the really fast drivers,but the Old school drivers is where it's at for me.I can throw my Valkyries just as far as a Boss.It's just what I've found I'm comfortable with.
Throwing grips:
Driving: 2 finger grip
Approach: Climo Grip
Putting: Fan Grip with index finger on bottom rim
My Goals: I'm doing my best to become familiar with as few molds as possible,but carry many variations.For years I used discs that overlapped and never really learned a lot.Not really trying to go big time Pro or anything,but I do want that Local Pro status and to be able to help many people in disc golf(which I do occasionally).
My Bag:
Distance Drivers:(380ft - 430ft)
175 Innova Echo Star Valkyrie: Overstable Driver,It's actually good in the wind.Forehand rollers,Tomahawks and sidearm.
173 Innova Champion 5x JK Pro Valkyrie: Stable Driver,forehand rollers
170 Innova Star Valkyrie: Straight Drives with little fade,Rollers
166 Innova Champion 5x JK Pro Valkyrie: Turnover Drives,Rollers
170 Discraft Z Predator: Utility,Overstable drives,Tomahawks,forehand rollers and sidearm.Very windy days.
Fairway Drivers:(350 - 375ft)
170 Discraft ESP Cyclone: Stable to Overstable drives.
170 Discraft Elite X Cyclone: Beat up pretty good,Does well as a dogleg turnover driver
170 Discraft Elite X Cyclone: Severely beat.Mainly used as a get out of trouble disc,where the flick of the wrist is needed.
175 Discraft Z Glide: Controlled straight Drives and some turnover drives.Rollers
Midranges:(310ft - 340ft)
170 Discraft Z Comet: Straight drives,Slow Hyzers,Forehand Rollers
170 Discraft Elite X Comet: Straight drives into anhyzer.Turnover drives.
170 Discraft Elite X Comet: Severely beat.used for shorter get out of trouble shots,where flick of the wrist is needed.
170 Discraft Z Buzzz: Stable Shots that require some hyzer.
175 Discraft Z Wasp: Overstable Midrange for lots of hyzer.Windy days
Putters:(anything up to 300ft)
(2) 175 Innova 12x KC Pro Aviars: Main Putters
170 MVP Ion: Stable Driving putter,upshots with hyzer
175 Discraft ESP Zone: Overstable driving putter,sidearm and tomahawks.Windy days.
170 Discraft Soft APX: Understable driving putter.Upshots with touch.
Discs I'm looking at getting:
Discraft Elite X Cyclone: I'm thinking this may have a bit less fade than the ESP version.Might be a good fit in the bag.Plus I need a new one.My old ones are just way too flippy.
Discraft Pro D Cyclone: May be good for those straight shots with hardly any fade.
Discraft Elite X or Pro D Stratus: I'm still undecided on this one.Do you guys think it would be a good fit in my bag?
Discraft ESP FLX Drone: I'm looking forward to getting this one.I'm thinking of replacing my Wasp for this disc and just using my Buzzz for those Wasp shots.
Thanks for looking and I'm open to any suggestions you guys have for the bag.


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I feel like the iPad is the better choice for Elementary School-Junior High because of the vast learning apps it has. But for High School-College level I think students would get more from the Surface because it has Word, Excel, and PP; and it works more like a computer. Funny though that the board went 6-0 in favor of the iPad!
*I think the article should specify that Microsoft is not offering the Surface RT to individual students at that price, only to the institutions.*
iPad with the free LogMeIn app and a $10 Smart Office 2 app should do the trick. If not, there's Pages, Numbers and Keynote for $10 each.
This is idiotic...books last much longer. They use no electricity to charge them. If teachers want to teach they will teach if they got a book or just a notepad. If students want to learn then they will learn. IT'S AMAZING WE MADE IT THIS FAR. I mean what ever did Benjamin Franklin do without an iPad? What Einstein do without an iPad? How did these people learn? How in the world did Steve Jobs make an iPad without an iPad?!? Oh man....maybe if I had an iPad I would know the answer to these questions....it would be different if this country wasn't 16 trillon dollars in debt...oh well **** it buy me one too
I would have to agree with steve-z17 on that thought. I don't even use my iPad at this time as it is too limited. I'd rather grab my MBP and just get it done. I wish I was still in school..all we ever had was 10 year old books with missing pages. These kids should be very appreciative of this gift.


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Paragon 60BENCH W/WOOD TOP & POWER DOME MODULA (DB660WA0T02)Item#: 40559300 | Model#: DB660WA0T02
- Price:
- $1,699.99
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- Temporarily out of stock. Order today and we'll deliver when available. (Details)
Paragon 60BENCH W/WOOD TOP & POWER DOME MODULA Product Details
Manufactured by: Paragon Software Group Corporation
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Mfg Part No: DB660WA0T02
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