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The Florida Legislature passed a transportation bill, CS/HB 5011, during the 2009 Legislative Session creating an $800 million fee/tax increase for the people of Florida.
Beginning September 1, certain fees for driver license and motor vehicle services will significantly increase as a result of the Florida Legislature's efforts to balance the state budget because of declining tax receipts due to the slowed economy.
There are things that we all don't like to here. Especially when its the bad things that we pretend aren't there.
Every parent has the same fear, of their child being hurt or in danger when were not there . We as parents know we will protect them and always give them proper care .
As manager of Florida's fish and wildlife resources, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) is diligent in protecting native species and habitats. When an exotic species invades our natural landscape, it is our duty to do everything possible to ensure those invaders do not expand their range and harm the fragile balance of Florida's unique and abundant wildlife.
You gotta' give it to Vice Mayor Theresa Barron, she can hang in there with the best of 'em. Take this Christmas lights thing. Barron wants the city to buy Christmas lights instead of leasing them.
Total cost to adorn light poles on US Highway 27A and U.S. Highway 19 is about $14,000. And that's just for part of the town. If she could get 100 light poles decorated, it would cost about $23,000. And they come with a three-year manufacturer's warranty. That's if the city had bought them in July.
I would like to thank family, friends, organizations, and all other supporters for donations and encouragement in helping me attend the College Connection at the Art Institute of Ft. Lauderdale. This summer program gave me great insight on what attending this school would be like upon high school graduation. Each day I was engaged in activities with excellent instructors who were currently involved in such professional fields as game design and computer animation. I really did enjoy having hands-on experience in the department of Computer Animation.
By DANIEL J. VANCE
Following a distressing situation that would have emotionally crushed most of us, 38-year-old Patrick Donohue of New York City has been able to redeem a great amount of good from it to benefit millions of Americans. I consider what Donohue has been doing one of the most important, largely untold stories in America today.
I want to wish "Cracker" Johnson well as he begins his chore as a County Commissioner.
As a former Commission Candidate for District 1 in 2008, I campaigned along side of Mr. Blitch and Mr. Macri and they ran a good hard campaign. They spent a lot of money and walked many miles on the campaign trail.
In my opinion, These two gentlemen should have been appointed to the two empty seats by the Governor. They both garnered a lot of votes.
Drama is defined an exciting, emotional or unexpected series of events or set of circumstances. Most of us know that. But there are so many of us who live it. Drama. With a capital "D".
In any environment, whether it's school, work, family or social, there's always Drama. Most people keep it to themselves, handle it privately and we never know what is going on.
But then there are those who over exaggerate everything and thrive on the crisis of the minute. You know them too.
Dear Levy County,
Hello, it's me again, the short, fat, hairy legged guy with the big hat. Words will never express the gratitude my family and I have for you.
We must say "thank you" again to the 8,818 Voters last November. We were humbled and blessed then and continue to be today by those who have fought for almost nine more months for my Appointment. Thank You for your prayers and words of encouragement.
To the Editor:
The resignation of Senator Mel Martinez is insignificant since he was a lackluster RINO (Republican In Name Only) and did not properly represent the best interests of the State of Florida and the United States.
Levy County Public Library System's summer programs will end this week.
Thank you to all the parents and daycares that made them a huge success. Summer programs are always fun at the library.
Regular monthly programs will be starting again in September for the school year. Please contact your local librarian for specific dates and details.
Thank you to all of our community helpers:
Family and Consumer Sciences Levy County Extension which provide weekly healthy snacks and handouts;
Last week, the news came that the cash for clunkers program ran out of money in a week.
And there was just a hopeful murmur out of Washington that the recession may be bottoming out.
Here in Levy where more than 1 in 10 folks is unemployed, there might have been some agreement--especially in Chiefland where there are hopeful signs of an economy working hard to recover. Behind First Baptist Church, the $220,000 Harmony Baptist Pregnancy Center is being built.
Commissioner,on July 26 I found myself in a life-threatening situation. While handling a large sheet of steel I completely severed my Ulnar artery in my arm. The blood loss was out of control and 911 was called immediately. We were informed, "There is only one vehicle serving the Chiefland area now, and it is on a call, and it will take some time before a backup can be dispatched from Bronson." No matter how much we wrapped the injury the blood would not stop pouring out. Chiefland Fire Department was called and thank God a provider was at the station at 3 p.m.
The Florida High School Athletic Association has released the results of its 2007-2008 sports participation survey. You can read it at http://www.fhsaa.org/programs/participation/2008_09.asp. Coincidentally, or not, FHSAA board also was scheduled to meet this Wednesday to (hopefully) rescind its recent decision to reduce schedules by 20 percent for all high school sports except football and cheerleading. A Title IX lawsuit filed last month in Jacksonville is surely one reason for reconsidering the policy.
So just as the police and sheriff are telling me there is a surge in economic crimes in the county, our office gets hit with a credit card scam.
Advertisers are calling and coming into the office after being contacted by someone - with from a blocked phone number - saying they are from the "Chiefland Bulletin" and they need credit card information to update their records.
A call to the Levy County Sheriff's Office confirms
that one customer has already called them to make a report. Chiefland
A noble act may be one of giving, caring, or sharing. It may be an act of enlightenment, just enough truth to guide someone's path. Truth enough to stand the test of time, time enough to see the truth in something we believe in. The cornerstone of government that our forefathers intended for us was, "government for the people, by the people."
Things I'd like to see when I come back to Chiefland for a visit:
The death notice box has been busy the past couple of weeks, in fact, so busy that it's hard to keep up.
Ed McMahon, Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Gale Storm, Karl Malden, Billy Mays, Steve McNair, Robert McNamara – those are some of the big names who left us during the past couple of weeks.
They say the deaths of famous people come in threes. If that's the case, we have far exceeded our quota.
There's been a lot of talk the past few years about cities and counties charging accident victims for the response of emergency personnel to their mishaps.
Williston went round and round about it some time ago, and Chiefland implemented it.
Ocala and Belleview in Marion County have done it.
But it won't happen any more ... not in Florida.
The Legislature passed, and the governor signed, Senate Bill 2282, which took effect July 1.
Part 1 of each section, one dealing with counties and the other with cities, reads:
So a move is afoot in Levy County to place a Ten Commandments monument on the grounds of the county courthouse.
The county commission last week OK'd guidelines for monuments on the courthouse lawns.
We have one at the Chiefland City Hall. It's a huge black and white monolith. It's there because the Chiefland Commission expressed the need for more prayer in the community.
I pass it at least once a day during the week.
I often use the sighting as a mental test to see if I can still remember all 10 directions.
Copyright © 2017
The Chiefland Citizen is your source for local news, sports, events, and information in Levy County and Chiefland Florida, and the surrounding area.


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Trampling the Caution Flag
Gross domestic product contracted in the fourth quarter, making it the first negative quarter of growth since the second quarter of 2009. The bad news is in stunning stark contrast with a stock market that appears complacent and without concerns.
Fourth-quarter weakness was more or less across the board, with declining output seen in three out of four components of GDP. Only a small gain in personal consumption expenditures kept the contraction from being sharper than it was....389 more words left in this article. To read them, just click below and try Real Money FREE for 14 days.
There's no substitute for a trading floor to get great ideas, so Jim Cramer created a better one at Real Money and blogs there exclusively. We then added legendary hedge fund manager, Doug Kass, with his exclusive Daily Diary and best investing ideas. Staffed with more than 4 dozen investing pros, money managers, journalists and analysts, Real Money Pro gives you a flood of opinions, analysis and actionable trading advice found nowhere else, and allows you to interact directly with each expert.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Tazawa, Uehara, and Wally to Bring 2013 World Series Trophy to Japan
BOSTON, MA - Red Sox bullpen members Junichi Tazawa and closer Koji Uehara will be joined by Wally the Green Monster in Tokyo to share the 2013 World Series trophy with baseball fans in Japan. The trophy will be in Japan January 20-22. The tour is part of a broader effort to share the World Series trophy with fans throughout New England, the U.S., and the globe.
The schedule will include a visit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe at his residence on January 21. During that visit, Tazawa, Uehara, and Wally will present the trophy and a Red Sox jersey to the Prime Minister.
The trophy will then be unveiled at Akasaka Sacas, the Tokyo Broadcasting System. The event is open to the public.
Later in the evening, the trophy is scheduled to appear at a reception at the residence of U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Bouvier Kennedy. In addition to Tazawa, Uehara, and Wally, Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa will be in attendance.
Baseball fans in Japan will have a chance to see the trophy on January 22 at a viewing at the MLB Café Tokyo.
Before making the trip to Japan, the trophy will first stop in California, today, January 17, where it will visit three popular gathering spots for Red Sox Nation residents living in Southern California, including Fat Face Fenner's Fishack in Hermosa Beach, The Garage in Los Angeles, and Sonny McLean's in Santa Monica.


text: +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | TPWD News Release 20060123b | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 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 11 years old. Please take the publication date into consideration for any date references. ] [ Media Contact: TPWD News, firstname.lastname@example.com, 512-389-8030 ] [AR] Jan. 23, 2006 Science Provides Foundation for Saltwater Fishing Regs AUSTIN, Texas -- It was a warm November evening in 1975 when a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department coastal fisheries crew set the first gill net in Matagorda Bay. By 6:30 a.m. the next day, biologists faced 3-foot seas and a cold, north wind as they counted and measured their catch. That event marked the end of fisheries management "by hunch" in Texas. In the more than three decades since, the TPWD coastal fisheries division has collected more than 20,500 gill net samples and more than 60,000 trawls in bays and the Gulf of Mexico. Together with thousands of bag seines and oyster dredges and the creel survey program, started in 1974, the data give fisheries biologists a pretty good idea of what's happening in Texas waters. "Because we have such a long-term database, using the same gear, the same way, over time, we can look and see if there's any change in the population, either in abundance or size structure," said Mark Fisher, Ph.D., TPWD Coastal Fisheries science director . When the coastal fisheries monitoring program turns up evidence of a declining population -- whether from angling pressure or from a natural event, like a freeze or red tide -- biologists can propose changes to fishing regulations in an effort to help a species rebound. According to Fisher, creel surveys -- where fisheries technicians and biologists interview anglers about their catches and count and measure what they kept -- are not, by themselves, a reliable indicator of a fish population's relative health. "Sport and commercial fishing is not standardized like our monitoring program, so comparisons between bays and years is not possible, and market forces drive the commercial fishery -- not necessarily abundance," Fisher said. Rule changes don't always act to restrict fishing. The coastal fisheries resource monitoring program also sometimes gives managers grounds for loosening regulations. Normally, biologists propose regulation changes through an annual regulatory review. After fall resource assessments and a review of recommendations received from various groups throughout the year, proposals are presented to the public for input in a process called "scoping." If the science shows a rule change is warranted in Texas, it is normally backed-up with a wealth of data. But science and even the scoping and public comment periods aren't the only deciding factors in the rule-making process, Fisher noted. The department annually conducts angler surveys to better understand behaviors, motivations and attitudes about coastal fisheries issues. By gathering information on both the fish and the fishers (anglers), TPWD attempts to put conservation first while being sensitive to what anglers want and will support. Fisher gives a frank assessment of how the regulatory review process works. "Often, in fishing, it's hard to separate science from politics," he said. "We do realize we're affecting people's livelihoods and their favorite pastimes. The human dimension comes into consideration, definitely. The science gives us a solid foundation. Otherwise it becomes one person's opinion over another, and that doesn't work out too well." -30-


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AT THE fourth time of asking both of the delayed Wiltshire Junior Cup quarter-final ties featuring Trowbridge & District League sides beat the weather with the outcome bringing heartache for Freshford United and joy for White Horse.
Swindon & Trowbridge League heavyweights Fratello's and Freshford United met at Sevenfields in Penhill looking to book their place in the semi-finals of this season's Wiltshire Junior Cup.
Both teams went into the game top of their respective premier and first division tables and it was the home team who made it through to the last four thanks to a controversial last minute winner that gave them a 4-3 win.
Freshford found themselves one down but fought back to level through Chris Maskrey only to fall behind again, however the villagers got themselves back on level terms for a second time when Tom Rooney restored parity before half time.
After the break Freshford got their noses in front for the first time, Ricky Trott giving them a 3-2 lead.
It was Fratello's turn to fight back an they responded well to square things up at three apiece.
With the game moments away from extra time the match referee ignored two strong appeals for fouls on Freshford players that led to the home team netting a hotly-disputed fourth that Freshford couldn't comeback from and it is the cup favourites who will take their place in the semi-final line up where they will host White Horse.
White Horse FC 1 Old Town United 0
A GOAL on 10 minutes from Stuart Barber was enough to earn White Horse a 1-0 victory over Swindon League side Old Town United but it was the only thing worth talking about in a game that saw very little goalmouth action.
TROWBRIDGE & DISTRICT LEAGUE ROUNDUP, STATS AND PICTURES IN THURSDAY'S GAZETTE & HERALD AND FRIDAY'S WILTSHIRE TIMES AND FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @gazsport and @WTSport


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The FAA is looking for a few good sites to test unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), signaling that momentum is building toward merging manned and unmanned aircraft in unrestricted airspace.
The agency announced March 7 that it is seeking public comment on the site-selection process in advance of issuing a request for proposals to operate the sites. The FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, signed into law on February 14, requires the FAA to establish a test program for UAS within six months. The reauthorization bill also sets a deadline for the integration of civil unmanned aircraft into the National Airspace System (NAS) "as soon as practicable, but not later than September 30, 2015." Similarly, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, enacted on December 31, calls on the FAA to establish a test program at six ranges, reflecting the military's strong interest in opening access to the NAS for unmanned aircraft.
In addition to the 2015 deadline for UAS integration, the FAA reauthorization bill instructs the agency within three months to "simplify" the existing process of issuing certificates or waivers of authorization to government agencies that operate unmanned aircraft in the NAS and, sooner, to allow public-safety agencies to fly UAS weighing 4.4 pounds or less in remote Class G airspace under certain conditions.
Draft Rule Not Yet Released
The legislative direction on UAS adds urgency to the FAA's own plodding regulatory process. The agency chartered a small UAS aviation rulemaking committee (ARC) in April 2008 that one year later issued recommendations for introducing UAS weighing up to 55 pounds into the NAS. The recommendations were intended to inform a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) being promulgated by the FAA. The agency expected to release the NPRM by last December, but the draft rule has since been postponed with no definitive release date announced. Richard Prosek, manager of the FAA's unmanned aircraft program office, told a late-February meeting of RTCA Special Committee 203, which is developing UAS performance standards, that the NPRM should be released by the end of June.
The delay may have as much to do with legal concerns as with technical considerations. One source said the FAA's parent agency, the U.S. Department of Transportation, is likely "doing a good scrub" of the draft rule over liability issues. Already, the pending introduction of UAS–or "drones" in mainstream parlance–into civilian, unrestricted airspace faces scrutiny from organizations including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
"Unmanned aircraft carrying cameras raise the prospect of a significant new avenue for the surveillance of American life," the ACLU warned in a December paper containing recommendations for restricted usage of UAS. "[T]he technology is quickly becoming cheaper and more powerful, interest in deploying drones among police departments is increasing and our privacy laws are not strong enough to ensure that the new technology will be used responsibly and consistently with democratic values."
Weighing in on the side of timely integration of unmanned aircraft are the UAS industry, proponents in Congress and powerful federal agencies. In its most recent aerospace forecast issued in March, the FAA said more than 50 companies, universities and government organizations are developing and producing 155 unmanned aircraft designs. "Based upon the expected regulatory environment," the agency said it predicts "roughly 10,000 active commercial UASs in five years." Last June, the FAA formed a new ARC to recommend on issues arising from broad introduction of UAS into the airspace.
The FAA reauthorization bill directs the agency to consult with NASA and the Department of Defense in determining the six UAS test range locations. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, testifying in March before House and Senate appropriations subcommittees, said the multi-agency Joint Planning and Development Office will lead efforts to achieve the integration of UAS in the NAS as of Fiscal Year 2013, which begins in October.
Gary Mortimer (not verified)
April 4, 2012 - 7:47am
It doe's not really enjoy the love of the sUAS industry as they are not being represented.
There are probably at least 5000 private UAS operating in the USA right now, regulations are probably going to make little difference.
The FAA has missed the boat on this one and should have adopted simple rules as Australia and the UK did a couple of years ago.
Spooky1 (not verified)
April 5, 2012 - 12:07pm
The FAA should just do it's testing at Area 51
rwspeer (not verified)
April 5, 2012 - 3:33pm
FAA makes it real hard to comment on this...you have to really 'drill down' to find a proper link...so I'm assuming they really don't want comments.
My comment would be: don't we have enough restricted airspace...why can't they use existing MOA's or Alert areas????
airguy (not verified)
April 5, 2012 - 4:19pm
It's a big country with lots of airspace, at least in the plains states and west. Should be possible to use parts of the existing lightly used MOAs, or create new UAS areas so as to avoid trafficed routes. I do not understand the apparent insistence on free and unfettered access by UAS to civilian airspace - we're one disaster away from draconian rules.
Scott J. Smith (not verified)
April 5, 2012 - 4:27pm
Any time you want to comment on proposed rules from any governmental agency, just go to www.Regulations.gov.
If you type "UAS" in the search field, the regulation you're looking for shows as the second result. Not that hard at all.
To post your comments, visit:
The "Submit a Comment" link is clearly visible in the upper-right-hand corner.
As a Florida pilot, I am opposed to any more of the NAS being carved out for any purpose. I like the idea of MOA's and Alert areas, but I imagine the canned response you'll get from the FAA will have to do with "incompatible operations" and "authorizing agency conflicts."
If anything, with the technology we have today, use Satellite and RADAR imagery for the past year (two? three?), and look at areas that HAVE NOT been overflown. I'd hate to see that airspace go, but if it has to, let it be something that isn't used, already.
STEVE ROSIER (not verified)
April 5, 2012 - 5:32pm
Living in North West Florida in the vicinity of Eglin AFB and its many test ranges I can tell you that airspace comes at a high price. The use of MOA's and other restricted areas must remain flexible to fit the missions of various test programs. At any given moment a test item may need to be destroyed or brought down in an unpopulated safe area for recovery, only military areas offer that security. The reason the FAA wants to have these test sites to include G airspace is to prove the concept of compatability of "drones vs GA aircraft". The use of this airspace by the military or airlines is a mute point. As a GA pilot myself just dealing with possibility of a bird strike is enough for me to review the B.A.S.H. reports in my area and yes a 4.4 lb bird can take down more than a Cessena 172, a lot more. These drones and the FAA, along with Law Enforcement are hell bent on cramming this down the throats of GA pilots and rest of the people. They would have you believe that domestic and foreign terrorists are in great numbers amongst us and need to be tracked or eliminated from the air by the same drones one day in our backyard. Will this new method of "protection" help the crime rate decline? No, they can't control it with what they have now, real humans in the loop and not some one sittng behind an Xbox console deciding if your a threat. Our only hope is that this idea becomes so popular that there are thousands in the air at once, crashing into each other or into someones family and the Government gettings it's collective posterior sued. What a field day for the lawyers uh?
T.D. Welander (not verified)
April 5, 2012 - 5:44pm
Just read the aeronautical charts for military operations areas (MOAs). There are at least several in each state or several hundred to pick from for use. No need and an imperative no need to upset existing air space with any additions. Most MOAs appear to be substantially underused anyway; should and must share joint use with any test aircraft. This is a no brainer. Why is anyone wasting so much time on what should be obvious; test aircraft in MOAs.
Ken (not verified)
April 5, 2012 - 6:23pm
As a pilot I worry about midairs with drones when they start flying, so I think it might be safest for the drones to be tested in the District of Columbia. No civilian aircraft at all are allowed in that area. so drones could be flown safely without having to worry about collisions with civilian aircraft. And when the military flies there, they can demand no drones be flown for that period. This is such a brilliant idea, isn't it? :-) You're welcome!
David (not verified)
April 5, 2012 - 8:28pm
In Maine the airspace is vast and the ex-USAF base Loring would love to have some visitors. The runway is over 12,000 long and very wide.
Bill (not verified)
April 5, 2012 - 8:59pm
GA aircraft can now fly into any MOA subject to the see and be seen VFR procedures. Pilots are very vigilant when flying in these areas.
How does a UAS see a GA aircraft in any airspace?
Bill (not verified)
April 5, 2012 - 9:00pm
GA aircraft can now fly into any MOA subject to the see and be seen VFR procedures. Pilots are very vigilant when flying in these areas.
How does a UAS see a GA aircraft in any airspace?
Steve (not verified)
April 6, 2012 - 2:51am
As it was the mandate of Congress to include this in the FAA Bill, I can think of no better airspace to do testing and integration than Washington DC.
I'm funny about my airspace that way....and I don't want to share it with a UAS.
Racerjerrry (not verified)
April 6, 2012 - 8:54am
I also propose that the drone testing be performed within the Class B airspace over Washington D.C. As of late, there appears to be nothing much of any value in that area should anything go wrong.


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Cyber squid for the win...
McFarlane Toys The Matrix Series 2
To insure your action figure collection, get in touch with Collectibles Insurance, the official insurance company of the Figures.com network. Say "Figures.com" to get 5% off your first term premiums.
To buy action figures, take a look at BigBadToyStore.com, RedfordFilms.com, BriansToys.com, ToyWiz.com, SmallJoes.com, MonkeyDepot.com, and Urban-Collector.com.
In 2003, McFarlane Toys picked up where N2 Toys left off (see their Card Back HERE) with detailed action figures from The Matrix trilogy. The dynamically pre-posed approach to the line worked well overall, figures like "Lobby Scene" Trinity and Neo being two awesome examples. However, McFarlane's Matrix figures really shined with the fully articulated deluxe boxed sets, such as the APU and Sentinel. While the former fighting mech was prone to breaking due to its fragile plastic construction, the cool cyber squid was just an amazing action figure in sculpt and size (more than 27 inches long with tentacles stretched out!). Towards the end of the run I picked up two Sentinels on sale for like $10 each. Looking back I wish I bought 10; simply an incredible deal on an equally incredible figure.


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LOS ANGELES—The International Mindfulness Foundation (IMF) today announced the discovery of a fifth noble truth, overturning the ancient Buddhist belief that there are only four. Speaking at a press conference at UCLA, IMF president Hugh Briss reported that researchers in the US and UK, using the latest quantum MRI technology, had scanned the brains of more than 100 select meditators to locate the fifth center of noble-truth activity in a part of the striatum normally associated with lust and desire, an area previous researchers had overlooked.
Follow the link to read the rest of the article
-- http://www.tricycle.com/blog/newsleek-f ... discovered


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Cutch returns after sustaining left rib injury
PITTSBURGH -- Andrew McCutchen was back in the Pirates' lineup Wednesday, a day after he tweaked an ailing rib in his left side. However, Pedro Alvarez -- who also left Tuesday's game -- was out of the lineup to nurse his sprained left foot.
A fractured rib put McCutchen on the disabled list for the first time in his career earlier in August, and he was pulled after five innings in a game in which he hit his back on the center-field wall while making a leaping catch in the third inning. He also looked to be in some pain after taking swings in that game.
"I'm not going to be passive; I'm going to keep playing like I play," said McCutchen, the reigning National League Most Valuable Player Award winner. "If my body says, 'No,' my body says, 'No.' But it's nothing big. This takes time to heal, and there are going to be days like this. We just want those kinds of days to be miniscule."
Alvarez injured his foot while diving for a ball in the sixth inning of Tuesday night's 5-2 win against St. Louis. He was wearing a walking boot following the game and on Wednesday morning, and Alvarez said there was discomfort between his toes.
Pirates manager Clint Hurdle did not have an update on Alvarez on Wednesday morning, and he met with reporters before posting the lineup for the afternoon's series finale against the Cardinals.
Stephen Pianovich is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


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Altuve among league leaders in hits
Second baseman's torrid early pace could lead to 200 for season
HOUSTON -- There's a long season ahead, but Astros second baseman Jose Altuve is on pace to become just the second Houston player to reach 200 hits in a season, joining Craig Biggio, who had a club-record 210 hits in 1998.
Altuve entered play Saturday with 50 hits, which ranked second in the Major Leagues behind fellow Venezuelan Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers, who had 52 hits. Altuve's 35 hits in April were a club record for a second baseman.
"I haven't thought about it," Altuve said of 200 hits. "I just go day by day and try to get my hits and get on base and score some runs and help the team."
Altuve grew up idolizing Cabrera, but the two have grown into friends. In fact, Altuve often leans on the 2012 American League Most Valuable Player for advice.
"We talk on the phone maybe twice a week," Altuve said. "When I don't feel really good at the plate, I text him and say, 'Miggy, I'm doing this. What do you think?' He tells me what I have to do. He's the best hitter in baseball right now. When I hear people say I'm behind him in leading the league in hits, that makes me feel really good."
But would Cabrera still feel good if Altuve passes him?
"I don't think he's going to feel happy about that," he joked. "He keeps telling me what he's doing and tries to help me."
Brian McTaggart is a reporter for MLB.com and writes an MLBlog, Tag's Lines. Follow @brianmctaggart on Twitter. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


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You have found the suppliers of all things WONDERFLEX® and FOSSHAPE®. Home of the leading heat activated composite material and heat activated fabric for theatre, costumes, millinery, mask or armor making, puppetry, props, cosplay, craft work, model making, set design, the entertainment industry and beyond. These are truly "limited by your imagination" materials.
Please come back again soon to see more unique end uses and applications that are continually being discovered. New or improved material offerings are expected to be available this year. Contact us for potential large volume requirements, special needs, questions or available discounts. And yes, we can ship worldwide.
You can order WONDERFLEX® and FOSSHAPE® on our products page.
Check out what other people have done with our heat activated products in our photo galleries and videos.


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Chico DeBarge Files for Divorce, Asks for Paternity Test
Citing "irreconcilable differences," Jonathan Arthur "Chico" DeBarge, an R&B singer whose older siblings performed in the Motown group DeBarge, has filed for divorce from his wife, Andrea DeBarge, TMZ reports.
As per the gossip site, Chico and Andrea married in 1996 and separated nine years later. The couple has four children, and while the singer has asked for visitation rights, he's not seeking custody.
Might that be the result of dubious paternity? According to TMZ, Chico has asked the courts for a paternity test. Reps for his soon-to-be ex have yet to respond.
Watch Chico DeBarge's Video for "Listen to Your Man" Feat. Joe


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Zane's Trace
©1995 by Beverly Whitaker, Genealogy Tutor
Zane's Trace
Wheeling, WV
Zanesville, OH
Chillicothe, OH
Maysville, KY (Limestone)
Zane's proposal was to follow along the northern bank of Wheeling Creek, up the mountain ridge and down its western slope, then along the Great Warrior's Road -- the old Mingo Trail -- to the Muskingum Rvier and then go southwest to the Hocking River, then from there south to the Scioto River, and across to Maysville in Kentucky. Chillicothe was the only settlement on the route.
Josiah Espy called Zane's route "the new state road" in 1805. In 1811, John Melish referred to it as "the great state road from Pittsburgh." On old maps, it is sometimes called "The Wheeling Road."
Downoad a 2-page Fact Sheet (free) about this trail in PDF format.
For more information about this and other migration trails, return to the
Check our Directory (new URL)
for Notes and Links to Our Genealogy and History Web Pages
Email: Genealogy Tutor Beverly Whitaker
Copyright © 1995-2009, Beverly Whitaker
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Several venues throughout the region will help celebrate Jewish Book Month in the coming weeks, two of them being Main Point Books in Bryn Mawr and the Katz JCC across the bridge in South Jersey.
Part of Cathy Fiebach's formula for success at her new, independent bookstore in Bryn Mawr is holding regular programming, such as book talks, and making the business "a sort of neighborhood community hub."
As such, the owner of Main Point Books, which opened this past summer, will host two well-regarded authors during this year's Jewish Book Month.
The Jewish-focused events at the book store on the Main Line are one of just a few happening in the Philadelphia area, in contrast to previous years when Jewish Book Month had a more prominent local presence. The Katz JCC in Cherry Hill, N.J., is one of the venues that continues to host an annual festival, this year bringing in a slew of big names during its Nov. 10-17 event.
Fiebach, 46, a member of Main Line Reform Temple who worked in brand management and fundraising before opening the store, said celebrating Jewish books provides an opportunity to "talk about great literature and maybe introduce people to some new books they don't know."
As a new business owner — Fiebach spent two years deciding whether and where to open her store — the month provides an opportunity to tap into an important customer base: "the people of the book."
"My grandparents gave me a gift certificate to the bookstore for my birthday every year growing up, and that sent a very clear message about what was important to them," said Fiebach, a mother of two sons.
The store also fills a void in an area, surrounded by college campuses, that has seen the closure of a Barnes & Noble and two Borders bookstores in recent years. Fiebach said a steady demand for books among the resident professors and students — on marketing her store she says, "I'm preaching to the choir" — coupled with a resurgence in small independent book stores around the country and plans to sell e-books on her website, give her confidence that her brick and mortar store will not be overcome by the tide of Amazon.com.
The Jewish events at her store include:
Dan Torday, a professor at Bryn Mawr College, will deliver a reading from his book, The Sensualist, which won the 2012 National Jewish Book Award for Outstanding Debut, on Nov. 7, at 7 p.m. The novel tells the story of a 17-year-old boy grappling with the trials of late adolescence in a tightly knit Jewish community in Baltimore.
Israeli journalist Yossi Klein Halevi will visit the store on Nov. 24 at noon,and talk about his critically acclaimed book, Like Dreamers: The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited Israel and Divided a Nation, which follows seven soldiers who fought together during the 1967 Six-Day War but had entirely different ideas about the country's future course.
In Cherry Hill, legal scholar Alan Dershowitz will open the Festival of Arts, Books and Culture on Nov. 10 with a talk on his recently published autobiography, Taking the Stand, which recounts some of his significant cases that helped define American jurisprudence over the past 50 years.
Other festival highlights include:
Comedian and writer Paul Reiser, the star of the former sitcom, Mad About You,
7 p.m. Nov. 10
Philadelphia news anchor Larry Kane presents the final book of his trilogy on The Beatles, When They Were Boys, 9:30 a.m. Nov. 11
Lynn Povich, the award-winning journalist who successfully sued Newsweek magazine for sexual discrimination and authored The Good Girls Revolt, 8 p.m. Nov. 11
Fred Stoller, actor and author of, Maybe We'll Have You Back, 7:30 p.m. Nov. 12
Laraine Newman, an original Saturday Night Live cast member, and original SNL writers discuss life backstage 8 p.m. on Nov. 16
For a complete listing, visit katzjcc.org/abcfest or jewishexponent.com.


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Overshooting is something, isn't it? There are times when, if you take your cue from a stock's action, it will drive you crazy. Apple (AAPL) is one of those stocks right now.
Put simply, if you want growth -- consistent growth that makes you feel the name will do even better in the outyears than it is doing now -- you have to buy Apple right here.
But if you see a flattening of growth or, heaven forbid, an actual contraction, then you have to sell it right here.
At this moment, the bearish view has more adherents than the bullish one does, so the stock is being sold. In the meantime, bewildered people who bought it because it was rising, of course, are taking their cue from the fact that it is now going lower.
Both groups of sellers, meanwhile, are heavily motivated either by what they perceive to be their charter or by fear itself.
What do the buyers have? How about discipline? Anyone who is a value-stock buyer knows the drill of growth going to value. There is no hurry, because there will be no quick reversal unless the company does something big and bold. While Apple is certainly a big and bold product-creator, it is not a big and bold stock-market manager. I bet there isn't a soul on the top level of Apple who thinks this stock-market move is right. I bet few even fathom it.
Last night, on Twitter, there was a post @jimcramer claiming I was wrong Thursday when I said the conference call drove it lower.
It was a stupid, uninformed comment. First, that isn't what I said. I just said it was a bad conference call, because you could see the stock drop, yet it didn't matter to Apple's participants on the call.
Second, that lack of acknowledgement thus failed to break the free fall in the company's stock. If you think your sole job is to build the best products available, then you shouldn't care about the stock -- as long as you build the best products available. Much of the selling is coming from people who believe other companies are now building equally good products that they're selling more cheaply vs. Apple.
That means either Apple has to bring down the price point of its products -- which is going to lead to a decline in gross margins and a decline in sales -- or it has to come up with a new product we haven't thought of. The product would have to be capable of producing an acceleration in sales and an attendant acceleration in gross margin in the outyears.
Others thought, correctly, that I believe Apple will announce some sort of plan for its $128 per share in cash. That, again, would require thoughts about the stock, and they are top of mind.
Now, you could argue that all of this is binary. You could say that, if you care about the quality of the products then you can't care about the stock -- that the stock has to sort itself out eventually before it goes higher.
That would be terrific if it were the case. But stocks don't play by product rules. There is an etiquette involved that forces most management teams to play by the rules, and give you hope that the stock's trajectory -- as clearly seen by flashing numbers post-earnings -- is wrong. But Apple's smug confidence made you feel the trajectory is right. If they don't want to get us to buy the stock by acknowledging that free fall, then why should we? We have plenty of management teams who care about product and stock and who will address the slowing phenomena.
Put simply, I believe Apple is overshooting its fair-value trading through apples-to-apples comparisons with such names as Intel (INTC) or Microsoft (MSFT). But those companies are doing lots to stabilize their respective stock prices, such as paying out good dividends and implementing fulsome buybacks. One has to ask: What exactly is Apple's excuse for not playing by the rules? Arrogance, alas, is not an answer.


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Let's say that you find yourself in a situation where you really need to reach a certain GPA threshold. Perhaps you need to attain a 3.0 for a scholarship, or maybe you need to get to 2.35 to pledge for a fraternity or sorority. Whatever the reason, if you know your current GPA and credits completed, and you know how many hours you plan to take, you can calculate what GPA you must earn to get to a new cumulative GPA.
In order to get where you want to go, you must first know where you are! For example, let's say your current GPA is 2.878, and let's say you've completed 56 graded credits. You need to get a 3.0 overall, and you are signed up to take 14 hours in the coming semester. What grades must you earn in order to reach a 3.0? Well, let's break it down a little. Using the information available:
Since (GPA) * (Graded Credits) = (Grade Points), (A)-above = 56 * 2.878, or 161.168
The total Graded Credits once you've completed the upcoming semester (D) will be 56 + 14, or 70.
Now our table will look like this:
Total Grade Points (E) is obtained under the same formula as above (GPA X Graded Credits), so 3.000 X 70 = 210. If the total Grade Points will be 210, and you currently have 161.168, then we can solve for the Grade Points needed (C). This becomes 48.332 (210 - 161.168).
Now the table appears as:
Now all that's left is to solve for (B) - the GPA required on the 14 credits to help reach the desired GPA. Using the same formula again: (GPA) * (Graded Credits) = (Grade Points), so (Grade Points) / (Graded Credits) = (GPA), thus 48.332 / 14 = 3.488. So if you were in the situation above, you would need to complete the 14 hours with a 3.448, or about an A- GPA to reach the 3.0 level.
In trying to make this as clear as possible, I've also made it rather lengthy. It is really not that difficult, but it has several steps. I've included a quick utility to aid with this process. The Threshold GPA Utility makes it easy to calculate the grade point average required to reach a desired GPA.
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FRITZ!Box 7330 Service - Knowledge Base
AVM Content
FRITZ!Box indicates numerous DSL connection errors
You are experiencing problems with your DSL connection due to numerous errors on the FRITZ!Box's end or at your DSL Internet service provider's exchange. As a result, Internet access over the FRITZ!Box is very slow (when you open web pages or download files, for example) or problems occur when you conduct Internet calls or play back videos (for example IPTV or video on demand).
- The throughput and stability of the DSL connection primarily depend on length and quality of the access line. Faults in the cabling or problems with the Internet service provider's exchange (DSLAM) can also affect it.
Important:Some of the settings described here are only displayed if the advanced view is enabled in the user interface. The configuration procedure and notes on functions given in this guide refer to the latest FRITZ!OS.
Simply proceed as described below. After each measure, check whether the issue persists.
1 Checking the cabling
It is often difficult to recognize mistakes in the cabling and they can remain unnoticed for a long time. Therefore, check the wiring in your home:
- Make sure that the FRITZ!Box is correctly connected to your DSL line. Remove the following:
- if you have an IP-based line: the DSL splitter,
- all cable extensions,
- unused cables and telephone jacks,
- additional electrical components (for example surge protection, automatic extension outlets).
2 Installing the latest FRITZ!OS for the FRITZ!Box
Installing the latest FRITZ!OS makes your FRITZ!Box compatible with the latest DSL technology used by DSL providers in their DSL exchanges:
- Install the latest FRITZ!OS on your FRITZ!Box.
3 Increasing the interference resistance
Increase the interference resistance of your DSL connection. This reduces the number of errors due to brief disturbances on the DSL line:
Note:Increasing the interference resistance of the DSL connection can reduce the throughput of the DSL connection. However, this can increase the speed and quality of Internet access, as they are not affected by retransmissions.
- Click "Internet" in the FRITZ!Box user interface.
- Click "DSL Information" in the "Internet" menu.
- Click on the "Line Settings" tab.
- Move one of the controls under "Receive direction" one step farther to the left towards "Maximum Stability".
Important:If you move the control too far towards "Maximum Stability", with some DSL lines you will no longer be able to establish a DSL connection. Therefore, do not select the setting "maximum stability" right away. Instead, push the controls gradually to the left in order to determine the best setting for your DSL line.
- Click "Apply" to save the settings.
- Click on the "DSL" tab.
- Check in the "Error Counter" section whether "Not Remediable Errors" (CRC) occur in the FRITZ!Box or the DSL exchange when you use the Internet.
- If numerous errors still occurred during the last 15 minutes:
- Repeat steps 3 - 7 until no further errors occur.
- If numerous errors still occurred during the last 15 minutes:
4 Checking the DSL line
There may be a problem with the DSL line. Since it may take a while for your DSL provider to check your line, you may be charged for the service, and our experience shows that there is often a problem with DSL lines even if they have been checked by your provider, proceed as follows:
- Check whether you also experience problems with your Internet connection if you use a different DSL modem on your DSL line,
- or,
- test whether you experience problems when you use the FRITZ!Box to access the Internet on a different DSL line (for example at your neighbor's).
- If you also experience problems when you use a different DSL modem on your DSL line, or if you do not experience problems when the FRITZ!Box establishes a DSL connection on a different line:
- Have the DSL provider check the DSL line.
ATTENTION!Your DSL provider may charge you for checking your DSL line. Ask your DSL provider about charges in advance!
- Have the DSL provider check the DSL line.


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Pretty up your daily routine with smart products and techniques for curing bad grooming habits. (We're looking at you, Ms. Eyebrow Over-Plucker.):
Don't Wash Your Hair Daily
Your scalp constantly produces oils that nourish, moisturize and protect hair. Unless your lifestyle requires you to sweat a lot (marathon runner, hot-sauce tester), there's no need to strip your tresses of a healthy amount of grease daily. "The less product you use, the longer you can go without washing your hair," adds Marla Beck, co-founder of the Washington cosmetics emporium Blue Mercury (Bluemercury.com).
The Fix: Ojon's Rub-Out Dry Cleansing Spray ($24, Sephora.com) keeps hair fresh between showers. Made of oil from a nut found only in Central American rainforests, the stuff is safe for colored locks.
Don't Pump Your Mascara
Repeatedly drawing the wand in and out of a mascara tube to get more product allows air to enter the container, which can dry out your lash-luxing formula and shorten its lifespan. "You had to do that in the old days because the packaging was thick at the bottom and narrow at the top," Beck says. "But now mascaras are designed to be long and narrow for maximum coverage on the brush."
The Fix: If your Diorshow or Great Lash has lost its luster, add three to four drops of hot green tea to the bottle. The warm liquid loosens up the contents, and the antioxidants in tea just might promote lash growth.
Don't Rub Wrists After Applying Perfume
Perfume is a delicate combination of scented oils and alcohol. Spritzing it on and smashing your wrists together creates friction between the oils in your perfume and those in your skin, which can distort the sillage (the scented trail left after applying a fragrance). It won't necessarily make your Chanel No. 5 smell like Eau du Dumpster No. 12, but it will result in a slightly different waft than the maker intended.
The Fix: Spray each wrist separately, along with your décolletage. If you overdo it, smear a little rubbing alcohol on the application points to dilute. Or, for a fool-proof option, gently dab on fragrance using a roll-on. Try Marchesa's parfum d'extase roller ball with hints of lilac and star anise ($25, Sephora).
Don't Think Red Lipstick Isn't for You
"Playing with makeup is half the fun of being a girl," says D.C. beauty blogger Lara Ramos of Theglossarie.com. "Just let loose." Perhaps the most feminine beauty product out there is a tube of bright-red lipstick. While you may initially balk at the "Look-at-me!" Marilyn Monroe-meets-Gwen Stefani vibe, Ramos thinks true reds work for every skin tone. Not ready to take the plunge? Use your finger to dab a little red on and top it with a sheer gloss.
The Fix: True reds - the unshaded hues of stop signs, cherries and fire trucks - are universally flattering. We're sweet for Illamasqua's matte lipstick in Box ($24, Sephora); Ramos swears by Maybelline's Red Revival ($8, CVS).
Don't Pluck Your Eyebrows Too Close to The Mirror
Here a hair, there a hair, and before you know it, you've plucked yourself into a Dr. Evil look-alike. Sculpting your brows too close to a mirror means you can lose sight of their overall shape. "Eyebrows are so important - they frame your face. It's almost as impactful as having your hair colored," Beck says.
The Fix: Get your brows groomed by a professional and maintain upkeep of strays, steering clear of the arch itself. No time to consult with the pros? Anastasia Beverly Hills' brow stencils provide an easy-to-follow blueprint for petite, slim, medium, high or full arches ($20, Sephora).
Do Moisturize Your Neck
"Everybody forgets the neck," Beck says. "But keeping it moisturized is essential to projecting a youthful appearance." Indeed, a woman's aging neck can be a source of contention as years wane. Nora Ephron even wrote a book about hers! Cutting your skin-care regimen off at the chin is doing a disservice to your Diane Keaton Institute anti-aging campaign. Giving your neck attention could determine whether people believe you're celebrating your 30th birthday (again).
The Fix: Extend a moisturizer such as Kiehl's new Powerful Wrinkle Reducing Cream ($52, Blue Mercury) to your neck. Looking for something lightweight? Beck recommends a serum. "Sometimes people don't want to put moisturizer on their neck because they fear it'll get on their hair and clothes. A quick-absorbing serum is a good alternative."
Do Apply a Top Coat to Your Nails
You've managed to make it past the smudge zone (phew), but that doesn't mean you can give yourself a well-manicured high five. "Bad habits are a result of not enough time," Beck says. Rushing your paint job and failing to apply a top coat leaves your digits susceptible to chips and dings. Take an additional five minutes to seal your polish with a long-lasting top coat that will save you time in the long run.
The Fix: Illamasqua makes a high-gloss, non-yellowing top coat that dries evenly in as little as five minutes ($12, Sephora). The heavy-duty varnish can extend the life of your manicure for up to two additional weeks.
Do Wash Your Makeup Brushes
Using a dirty brush is like applying makeup with the bottom of a shoe. "When you're putting something on your face, you want to make sure it's clean," Ramos says.
"Brushes carry a lot of gross bacteria because they're sitting in your bathroom or floating around your makeup bag collecting germs." Maintaining brush cleanliness extends their life and keeps evil, acne-causing organisms away from skin.
The Fix: Beck recommends disinfecting brushes at least every three months. Swirl damp buffers in Sephora's Purifying Brush Shampoo ($6, Sephora) before letting them dry. You'll return to clean bristles minus the buildup.
Don't Wash Your Face in The Morning
Like your hair, your face benefits from a healthy amount of naturally secreted oils.
Cleansing skin at the end of the day strips it of environmental factors such as pollution and dirt buildup as well as makeup. But washing it again in the morning is overkill. "So many women start their day with a cleanser and they don't need to," Ramos says. "There's nothing touching your face at night, so washing it in the morning just dries you out."
The Fix: Trade harsh cleansers for a warm washcloth or gentle wipes such as Korres' Milk Proteins Cleansing & Make-up Removing Wipes, which nourish and refresh a sleepy dermis ($12, Sephora).


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Elections officials have nearly completed their tallies of the votes cast in the General Election, and the numbers show a notable drop-off in voter turnout from the previous presidential election.
Voter-participation statistics from San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties mirror numbers for California as a whole.
Turnout rates in presidential election years since the 2000 contest between George W. Bush and Al Gore trended upward until 2008, when Barack Obama defeated John McCain and became the United States' first black president.
This year's numbers, however, tell a different story.
In California, nearly 69 percent of registered voters participated in the General Election. That rate signifies a statewide participation decline of roughly 10 points.
Los Angeles County's turnout fell from 82 percent in 2008 to about 67 percent this year.
San Bernardino County's participation rate fell five percentage points to roughly 69 percent of registered voters in November.
"I think our turnout was consistent with what we saw throughout the state. That it was lower than 2008, but consistent with historic turnout," San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters Michael Scarpello said.
In San Bernardino County, the split between voters who cast mail-in ballots and those who voted at a polling place was nearly 50-50.
Roughly 48 percent of the county's voters chose mail ballots, but Scarpello said many voters don't like to put a stamp on their ballot and entrust their vote to the Postal Service.
Instead, many voters preferred to hand their ballots in at one of the county's 55 drop-off locations. Scarpello said he is considering adding more drop-off and early-voting locations in the future.
"I don't see my role as driving turnout, but I do see my role as making it simple for people to vote, if they so choose," he said.
Gloria Anderson, the president of the League of Women Voters of San Bernardino, said she did not see a noticeable decline in voter enthusiasm before the Nov. 6 election.
Anderson said her biggest concern from this election cycle was not turnout but the onslaught of political advertisements produced by super PACs.
Super PACs can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to support or oppose candidates as long as they do not coordinate with office seekers. The groups often produce negative ads.
Reach Andrew via email, call him at 909-483-8550, or find him on Twitter @InlandBizz.


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BUSINESS in Bridport is booming once again as cameras continue to roll in West Bay for the second series of Broadchurch.
The cameras returned to film in front of the iconic West Bay cliffs on June 5, marking the first time the cast and crew have filmed in front of the cliffs on East Beach for the second series of the BAFTA award-winning show.
Local businesses have already reported a boom in trade after people keen to catch a glimpse of the star-studded cast in action headed down to West Bay.
On the first day of filming, the cast and crew set up their production base in the car park next to the West Bay Hotel and Andrew Buchan, Jodie Whittaker and Charlotte Beaumont, who play Mark, Beth and Chloe Latimer in the show, were filmed driving around West Bay and Bridport. David Tennant, Olivia Colman and Hollywood legend Charlotte Rampling could also be seen filming in a house in West Cliff.
Tim Attrill, from Harbour News, which featured heavily as the newsagents in the first series, said the store had seen a lot more visitors due to the filming – which has also caused a lot of local excitement.
Tim helps run the Harbour News with dad Richard and ahead of filming, the store put a spoof script in the window.
Tim added: "We've had members of the film crew come in for drinks and snacks and a lot of people have loved our spoof Broadchurch script.
"Once filming wraps up even more visitors are likely to come to West Bay. Trade has certainly seen a boost so far." Steve Tucker, who runs the Ellipse Café which featured as the police station in the first series, said producers have been keeping the filming fairly quiet but lots of people have been asking the café about the filming for series two.
Sam Good, landlord of The West Bay pub, said he hopes the same knock-on effect of trade following Broadchurch being shown on TV takes place for series two.
The trade increase comes after businesses told of record sales over the Easter bank holiday weekend in April, and Bridport shared a predicted £67 million income from tourism in Dorset during the August bank holiday week last year.


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People's Choice Round Three: Vote for Kitchen Features
It's time for round three of our People's Choice vote, and we're moving to the main level of the home. For the next two weeks, you'll be selecting features for the kitchen. From the island top material and cabinet colors to the refrigerator and accent features, you'll have a variety of ways to help design this year's kitchen.
Keep in mind though, your flooring pick from round one will greatly affect the cabinet choice you pick in this round. In round one, you chose the tiger strand bamboo flooring, so choose the cabinetry color that will best coordinate with that design.
Have fun, and be sure to share your picks with the group.


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- Buy New
- Alerts
Item Note:
This product has been discontinued but may be available as a Open Box item.
Similar Items
Unbeatable tone and value from the Fender California line.
The Fender Malibu CE folk-style cutaway acoustic guitar offers great Fender acoustic tone and unbeatable value, and has now been upgraded with new features including a three-ply gold pickguard and a vintage-inspired rosewood Fender œViking bridge with compensated saddle.
Other great features include a spruce top with scalloped X bracing, mahogany back and sides, vintage C-shaped maple neck with dual-action truss rod and Stratocaster headstock shape, 20-fret rosewood fingerboard, body binding and elegant checkerboard rosette, vintage-style tuners with plastic buttons, chrome hardware, forward strap button with internal block reinforcement, gloss neck and body finish, and Fishman Isys III pickup system with active onboard preamp and tuner.
- Series: California
- Body Style: Folk
- Top: Laminated Spruce Top
- Back and Sides: Solid Mahogany Back, Laminated Mahogany Sides
- Body Finish: Gloss
- Bracing: Scalloped X Bracing
- Neck: Maple
- Neck Finish: Gloss
- Fingerboard: Rosewood
- Nut: Synthetic Bone
- Bridge: Rosewood with Compensated Saddle
- Hardware: Chrome
- Number of Frets: 20
- Strings: Fender Dura-Tone Coated 80/20 Bronze (.012-.052 Gauge)
- Electronics: Fishman Isys III System with Active On-Board Pre-Amp and Tuner
- Unique Features: Fender Stratocaster Headstock Shape, Fender Folk Guitar Body Shape, Gold Pickguard, Dual Action Truss Rod, Traditional Fender Bridge, Factory Mounted Forward Strap Button with Internal Block Reinforcement, White Dot Inlays, Checkerboard Rosette, Soft "C" Shaped Neck, Multiple Body Bindings
Pick up this awesome upgraded acoustic today.
Malibu CE Acoustic-Electric Guitar Specifications:
- Scale Length: 25.3" (64.3 cm)
- Body Width: 3.1875" (Front) to 3.875" (Rear)
- Nut: 1.625" (41.3 mm)


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Hi Sally - We apologize for any confusion or inconvenience. Here's the snippet from the rules that states the dates & times: "Online entries must be submitted between 9:00 AM PDT on April 15, 2011 and Noon PDT on August 31, 2011." Here's the link to the full rules: http://bit.ly/exIWx9
Sutter Home's Build a Better Burger - 1 Day Left!
You've been grilling & tasting & grilling & tasting for months. Your recipe is perfected. You now only have one day to get your recipe submitted into the 2011 Sutter Home Build a Better Burger contest!!
Thousands enter, only one will win the $100,000 prize. Will it be yours?
HELP!??? I am just reading these comments. Like Pam,I sent my recipe in yesterday around noon CT. I had to reenter it 2 times then on the last time, I finally typed it in word and did a cut and paste.I checked for the rest of the day and did not get a response. In the process of reentering and right after last submission, realized I had a typo on proportions of meat. It was supposed to read 2 lbs. sirloin not 1 lb. :-(
Guess I'll have to save it for next year....
Like Pam I entered it several times, with no response...not that she sent hers in on the 31st.
I'm so disappointed! It's 7:10 CST August 31, which means it's not yet midnight *anywhere* in the US, and I just logged on to discover the contest is CLOSED! Usually a deadline means midnight, wherever the contest is headquartered.
Please consider that next year for those of us who work on our recipes until the last minute, assuming that an August 31 deadline means August 31.
Why does the home page say contest closed at 9am central time when the rules say noon PDT on August 31? I also submitted my recipe and didn't get a confirmation
Hi Lynn - We're not sure where you saw the 9am CT mention. Can you send us the link? The contest officially closes at noon PT today.
If you didn't get a page that said thank you after you submitted your recipe, be sure to resubmit.
Good luck everyone!
Absolute GLEE! :) I've had so much fun creating, testing, tasting and writing - I can't believe submissions are at an end and it's all in the hands of the judges now!! Here's to all the burger aficionado's out there - 10 of us will grill for the big time!! Cheers!
Hi Pam! If you did not get a confirmation page that said Thank You after you hit submit, please re-submit your recipe! We want to be sure it comes through. Thanks!
Hi Pam, Mine did say Thank you for submitting... One time I took too long and it took me back to the info page. So definitely resubmit =]
Thank you for your responses! I am glad I asked! I am going to resubmit now!
@Cynthia - The recipes are added to the Burgerbase after the finalists have been announced. Visit our Facebook page and website in a few weeks to find out who the finalists are!
I submitted two recipes and received confirmation for both, but I don't seem them in the burgerbase. Is this an indication that the recipes weren't received, or do only some make it into the burgerbase? Thanks for your help.
Do we get a confirmation of a submitted recipe? I submitted mine, but it went back to the "enter your recipe" page. I am not sure if it took me to long to enter my information or if that is what it is supposed to do. Anyone else get a confirmation e-mail or did you go to a page that said your recipe was submitted? Help! :)


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Sunday, January 22, 2012
How to find if JVM is 32 or 64 bit from Java program.
Check if JVM is 32 or 64 bit from Java program:
9 comments :
- soya said...
I wanted know whether my JVM is 64 bit or not and found your tips very relevant. I don't require check if JVM is 32 bit but if any JVM is 64 bit than we do load native .so file from separate location.
- January 24, 2012 at 2:05 AM
- Kresten P. Vester said...
Calling System.getProperty("os.arch") on a 64-bit Linux system (OpenSUSE 11.4) with a 32-bit JVM returns: i386
I used Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_22-b04)
- May 30, 2012 at 4:15 AM
- Anonymous said...
Hi, We have several JDK and JRE installed on Solaris Sparc box, I want to find out which installed JDK or JRE is 64 bit ? Can you please share command to do that ? Also is it possible to run 32 bit JVM in 64 bit machine i.e. if My Solaris sparc box is 64 bit but JVM is 32 bit can I execute Java program there ?
- September 12, 2012 at 1:19 AM
- Anonymous said...
One of the interesting point to know relate to 32 bit or 64 bit installation is that it varies on different environment e.g In windows and Linux you have separate installation for 32 bit and 64 bit JVM but on Solaris machine e.g. Sparc, one JVM installation represent both 32 bit and 64 bit JVM and until specified by -d32 and -d64, they by default run on 32 bit data model. Which means you may not able to assign more than 3.5GB of heap, despite running 64 bit JVM in 64 bit machine. Solution is use -d64 JVM option to run JVM on 64 bit data model.
- September 12, 2012 at 3:05 AM
- Dickson Duah said...
How do i solve this error:
Could not create the java virtual machine
A fatal exception occurred. program will exit
- January 10, 2013 at 9:08 AM
- $$$$~$$$$ said...
I got "JVM Bit size: x86" for os.arch and "32bit" for sun.arch.data.model on my intel machine with 64 bit windows 7 os.
- February 28, 2013 at 10:05 AM
- Anonymous said...
Just change the JRE to JDK 1.7.0_17, you will get the 64 bit JVM.
- April 13, 2013 at 11:15 PM
- palak pal said...
A nice tutorial on
JVM Architecture Specification Basic The Heap Area Introduction, teach about the JVM Heap Area in details
JVM Architecture Specification Basic The Method Area explained, teach about the JVM method area
- July 8, 2013 at 10:05 AM
- Anonymous said...
As this question is already answered and explained by Java geeks , I just want to add little extra in it - generally people prefer to switch over 64 but JVM when the existing heap space (1.5 to 1.8 M varies OS to OS) size provided by 32 bit JVM is not suffice for their application , but these days it is very common that people are migrating to 64 bit without understanding the requirement of applications.
- July 22, 2013 at 1:26 PM


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Though the calendar indicates December, the weather in Portland has been mild, allowing for a calm end to the busy fall semester. We are excited to report that the College sent a large group of second and third year students and three faculty members to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Midyear Clinical Meeting & Exhibition in New Orleans. We encourage those students who have an interest in pursuing post-doctoral residencies or fellowships to attend this meeting as second or third year students in order to better understand the residency showcase process so they are better prepared to participate during their fourth professional year.
It is also exciting to report that seven of our pharmacy practice faculty members have received board certification through the Board of Pharmacy Specialties, an autonomous Division of the American Pharmacists Association. Dr. Lisa Pagnucco, Dr. Erin Koepf and Dr. Paige Parsons each passed the Ambulatory Care Board Certification exam (BCACP). Dr. Andrea Deschambeault and Dr. Leslie Ochs each passed the Pharmacotherapy Board Certification exam (BCPS). Dr. David Romerill passed the Nutrition Support Board Certification exam (BCNSP). Dr. Devon Sherwood passed the Psychiatric Pharmacy Board Certification exam (BCPP). We are very proud of this accomplishment for each of these faculty members.
Our 2012-2013 admissions cycle is on its way with our first set of students interviewing on December 9, 2011. Our applications have increased in number and quality from the same time last year! These applicant interviews could only be possible through the dedicated efforts of our faculty and staff members and the many volunteers who assist us during this interview process. Thanks to all of you have participated in our interview process. If you are interested in serving as an interviewer during future graduate admissions days, please contact Dr. Jean Woodward, our Associate Dean for Student Affairs and Admissions at email@example.com.
As this calendar year comes to a close, I would like to thank all of you who have supported the College of Pharmacy during the last few years. The numerous successes of our College have only been possible through the collective and tireless efforts of faculty, staff, students, preceptors and friends, who have shared in this vision for a pharmacy program at the UNE. The faculty and staff, in conjunction with our many preceptors, are working toward our goal of educating pharmacists you will want on your team. Thank you for being on our team as we work towards this vision. Finally, I would like to wish a joyous, peaceful and safe holiday season to you and your family, friends and colleagues. I would like to leave you with the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson who reminded us that "Nobody can bring you peace but yourself." Happy Holidays and Best Wishes for the New Year!


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The Cardinals (9-3, 6-2 MAC) defeated Miami (Ohio) on Friday to close out the regular season on a six-game winning streak. In addition, all three of Ball State's losses — Clemson, Kent State and Northern Illinois — came against teams currently ranked in the AP Poll.
The News-Sentinel sports columnist and reporter Pete DiPrimio was the only member of the 60 AP Poll voters to put Ball State on his top 25 ballot this week. DiPrimio ranked the Cardinals at No. 25.
The Cardinals were one of 15 schools to receive votes but finish outside of the top 25 in the AP Poll this week.
This is the first time Ball State earned a AP Poll vote since the final AP Poll of the 2008 season when the Cardinals closed out the season 12-2 with a loss to Tulsa in the GMAC Bowl.
Ball State finished this year in second place in the MAC West and is projected to play in its first bowl game in four years.


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The History of Vacheron Constantin's Alternative Time Displays: Part 2
click here to read Part 1
click on the scans for a larger view
In 2001 Vacheron Constantin started working on a new project highly inspired by the Mercator and which it was to replace: an alternative time display (this time with wandering hours) watch with a polychrome enamel dial as a tribute to human adventures.
With the Tribute to the Great Explorers the cartographer gave way to the seafarers and heroes of the past who explored far and exotic lands. The dials remain in enamel but the time reading is done via rotating hour numerals.
Vacheron Constantin upped the dial difficulty in not only making it in champlevé enamel (once again supported to the dexterous hands of Jean and Lucie Genbrugge) but also having it stand on two levels, one overhanging the other. The upper part shows lands associated with the particular explorer's exploits. The lower one is a 132° strip forming the dial's bottom arc; it bears the minute track over which the rotating hour numeral travels clockwise in turn.
The enamelling technique used here is the champlevé one. The outline of the subject is first traced with a sharp metal point on a sheet of 22K gold barely half a millimeter thick and a little more than two dozen millimeters across. Under strong binocular magnification, using a paintbrush made of one or two marten hairs, a few droplets of enamel are deposited. Colors must imperatively be applied in a strict, predetermined order as to obtain the requested result.
That done, the workpiece is fired in a kiln at 700° - 800°C (1290° to 1470° F). After cooling, it is smoothed, in some cases with powdered corundum, and then meticulously polished. More enamel is then applied, fired, smoothed, polished and so on – up to thirty times per dial. Firing times must be calculated with great exactness according to the type and quantity of enamel applied, firing times are not rocket science and can vary between each work piece depending on the impressions of the enameller. At the end of this elaborate process, a coating of transparent flux is applied and the workpiece is fired yet again, this time to 900° C (1650° F). After cooling, the dial is smoothed and polished one last time.
This lengthy and meticulous procedure is hard on the nerves. Brittle and quirky, cooling enamel may unexpectedly shatter as it leaves the kiln. The heat-loss process must perforce be slow, careful and regular since sudden temperature changes can, in an instant, destroy countless hours of painstaking work.
This model's two-part dial posed a further challenge inasmuch as to ensure a perfect match both parts had to be enamelled, fired and finished in tandem – doubling the risk!
The movement used in the TTGE is the tried and tested automatic cal 1126AT with an extra wandering hour module developed inhouse.
The hour "crown" wheel's three arms are each fitted with a satellite carrying four hour numerals whose position is controlled by a cam shaped like a Maltese cross. The "crown" wheel rotates so as to position in turn each of the satellites bearing the appropriate hour figure at the gap between the two parts of the dial. After the Maltese cross cam has caused the satellite to insert the correct hour figure in the dial gap, the hour "crown" wheel drives it clockwise during precisely one hour over the minute figures and guide marks inscribed on the lower part of the dial.
The dials represent the roads travelled and discovered by the chosen explorers. The first two dials were launched in 2004 and represented Zeng He and Magellan. Two new and final dials will be launched this year representing Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus. The Tribute to the Great Explorers even though not marketed as a limited edition will be made in only 60 pieces for each dial for a total of 240 all housed in a beautifully curvaceous yellow gold case. The case back is solid and engraved in a very à propos manner with a wind rose.
ZHENG HE (1371 -1434): The Indian Ocean
In the early years of the 14th century, Chinese maritime expeditions began in earnest. The Ming dynasty built one of the most powerful fleets in history. It comprised 62 huge multimasted junks and 100 lesser vessels, carrying nearly 30,000 men. This impressive armada was commanded by a towering figure of seafaring, Admiral Zheng He (Cheng Ho). Captured and castrated when still a youth, he was placed in the service of a ranking member of the imperial family and given the name San Bao, meaning "Three Jewels". In addition to the crew, the fleet included scientists, state officials and interpreters in all the languages spoken along the coastline of the Indian Ocean, from Vietnamese to Arabic. A full century before the first Europeans navigators explored this part of the world; Zheng He's fleet had already been there seven times, making something like forty contacts with local powers from south-east Asia to Africa to the Arab world. Among other wonders, Zheng He once returned to China with a giraffe, a gift from the sultan of Malindi, in what is today Kenya, to the emperor. The presence of this "Celestial Unicorn", as court officials called this strange beast, in the imperial zoo was considered a sign of auspicious fortune. From Indochina, Malaysia, Ceylon and India to the Persian Gulf, Somalia and even faraway Mecca, Zheng He is remembered as an unusually talented navigator and an inspired explorer. A recent theory grants Zeng He the discovery of America, 70 years before Columbus!
FERNAND DE MAGELLAN (1480 - 1521): Patagonia
September 20, 1519. Commanding a fleet of five ships manned by 300 men, Fernand de Magellan sailed from the port of Seville, westward bound for the Spice Islands (today the Moluccas, part of Indonesia). Spurred by his studies and early experience, Magellan dreamed of reaching far-off Asia by sailing to the south of the landmass discovered by Christopher Colombus – no mean feat at the time. The ships reached Brazil, anchoring off what is today Rio de Janeiro, then travelled south to Patagonia. Surviving mutinies, quarrels, shipwrecks and disease, Magellan sailed on, buoyed by his enthusiasm and determination. He eventually discovered and navigated the straits that today bear his name, sailing along a coast dotted by native campsites which he called Tierra del Fuego (Land of Fire). He again reached the open sea, so marvelling at its calm expanses that he named it Pacific Ocean. Having reached the Philippines in 1521, he died during a battle with a local tribe. Only one of the five ships, with eighteen men and a hold full of spices, was to complete the journey back to Spain. It was the first vessel ever to have sailed all the way around the world. Over and above his dreams of exotic treasures, Magellan's voyage demonstrated conclusively that the earth was indeed a sphere.
Marco Polo (1254-1324) the Silk Route
Marco Polo was 15 when his father and uncle returned from a long journey on the Silk Route, which linked Constantinople to China. The two traders had managed to reach China in relative safety due to the fact that continental Asia had been unified some years earlier by Gengis Khan and his terrifying Mongol warriors.
The Polo brothers set off again for china in 1271 with a message from the Pope Gregory X to Emperor Kublai Khan, grandson of Gengis Khan and they took 17 year old Marco with them.
Kublai Khan received and honored the 3 travelers in Cambuc, his capital (today Beijing). Marco and the Emperor became good friends and he was even made governor of a town.
He collected information on regions totally unknown to the Europeans of his time; he also discovered durum wheat noodles, which were so enthusiastically embraced by his fellow compatriots. The Polos returned to Venice 24 years after their departure. Marco published the accounts of his journeys in his "Travels of Marco Polo" a book describing a world of marvels that abounded in precious stones, spices, silks, beautiful women, shiny palaces and monstrous creatures.
By the time Marco Polo died at age 70 his journeys had made him famous throughout Europe. Later, other adventurers like Vasco de Gama and Christopher Columbus followed his footsteps but they went by sea and not land.
Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) – Discovery of America
On August 3, 1492, two caravels, the Pinta and the Nina, and a third vessel, the Santa Maria, left the port of Palos de Moguer in Spain and set sail upon the Ocean Sea (the Atlantic). The fleet was commanded by the Great Admiral of the Ocean Sea: Christopher Columbus. He had spent 10 years of his life in obtaining this title as well as the royal support needed for this expedition. After being turned down by the King of Portugal he managed to convince Isabel of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon to finance his trip, an attempt to prove that it was possible to reach India by navigating westwards.
The voyage took 70 long days and after several attempts at mutiny land was sighted on Oct 12, 1492. Christopher Columbus and a few sailors went ashore on the island of Guanahani which Columbus renamed San Salvador, he then explored another island and named it Hispaniola (Santo Domingo).
During 3 other voyages he discovered and named many other islands (Marie Galante, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Saint-Martin, Puerto Rico, Jamaica…) and finally set foot on the American continent at the mouth of the Orinoco.
He remained convinced until his last breath that he had discovered the route to the Indies. After his death, it was the Florentine Amerigo Vespucci that the geographer Waldessemüller attributed the discovery of the continent that he called Americi Terra.
Les Metiers d'Art: Four Seasons
Launched in 2005 as a 4 piece set in celebration of the brand's 250th anniversary, the Métiers d'Art Four Seasons is a tentative in displaying at the same time both the brand's technical mastery, with an all new inhouse cal 2460, as well as the artistic crafts of enamelling, sculpture and gem setting.
The time and calendar functions are visible via four apertures respectively revealing the hour, the minute, the day and the date. These indications, wandering for the first two and jumping for the latter two, appear through four openings arranged around the central dial motif.
The dial represents in its centre, Apollo's chariot (Apollo was chosen since in Greek mythology he is the God of the arts but also of passing time) pulled by four horses, depicted on a raised hand-engraving in 18K gold, applied to the two-part dial decorated in the colours of each of the seasons. The finest and most meticulous craftsmanship techniques are implemented in this model, associating a base coated with translucent enamel and featuring a gold sun and moon in its lower and upper parts. On either side of the chariot are plant-life motifs painted in accordance with the seasons and delicately applied with a fine brush.
The dials are of engraved 18 k yellow gold (winter has a 18k white gold dial), filled with enamel powder and heated in an oven at 840° C for periods of 10 seconds to one minute as to allow the enamel to set. Each time a new color is added and the process is renewed. Depending on the colors each dial needed between 6 and 15 passages into the oven.
|The enameller has before her different color essays and sees the different tints of enalem which can be obtained depending on the different mixes. She uses this to determine the amounts and mixes of powder to be used to obtain the best results.
The Four Seasons were produced in a limited edition of 48, meaning 12 sets comprising four watches each.
Looking closely at the dials there is no denying that an intense amount of work has gone in their making, may it be the subtle details of the engraving or the amazing translucent enamel dials (which we owe to wonder enameller Anita Porchet) but sometimes you can have a dream team on the field and still not win the game. This is my feeling for the 4 Seasons; I truly love and am amazed by each individual detail: the case, the dial layout and time reading, the enamelling, the engraving, the gemsetting but put together I cannot suppress a feeling of weight and gaudiness.
However, this time reading display with a central engraved character lead its way 2 years later to what I consider to be one of the most audacious watches to come out of the watch industry in recent times: a true mixture of arts, horology and most of all emotion: The Métiers d'Art Les Masques.
Métiers d'Art Les Masques
For a full review of the 1st set click here
Early 2006 the product development team at Vacheron Constantin started thinking of a project where the movement of the Four Seasons would be used. The idea was to find an object of universal appeal which would take centre stage on the dial.
The team at Vacheron Constantin wanted to continue exploring the multi cultural dimension of models such as the Mercator and Hommage aux Grands Explorateurs and to apply it in a manner where it would be not only decorative but with a more profound and human approach.
Different symbolical subjects were first tested, such as arms, traditional dress or totems and it is the latter that lead the way to the masks. Primitive or tribal arts may seem exotic to many, but in Geneva the Barbier-Muller museum is somewhat of an institution and houses the oldest (from 1907) and most important private collection of primitive arts. It was therefore a natural step for the designers at Vacheron Constantin to take a closer look at the museum's offerings.
They were immediately seduced by what they saw: Arts which brought men back to their roots and to the history of humanity. Arts which were not only decorative but functional (and sometimes spiritual) objects part of the lives of those who used them. Arts which are not "obvious" and request a certain open mindedness to fully embrace and appreciate.
The Liao Dynasty mask (circa 907 AD) immediately struck a cord with the designers who literally dived into the project with overflowing ideas. They first scanned a miniaturised version of the mask and placed it in the centre of a dial, the time and calendar functions being pushed to the periphery.
The first drawings depicted a mask on engraved or enamel backgrounds but the results did not meet the design team's aesthetic aspirations. The background was not only taking attention away from the mask but was overloading the dial making it look burdened.
The idea of a transparent dial came once the team decided to abandon the engraved or enamel dials. Says Vincent Kaufmann, head of design at Vacheron Constantin "In the Barbier Muller Museum the masks are placed within a glass cabinet and that's the atmosphere we wanted to create, thus the idea of a transparent crystal where the mask seems to be floating above the dial".
With reason, most of the talk has been focused on the engraved masks but the dial is a true feat and a visually enchanting artwork. A clever technique using transparency and special treated glass creates the impression that the masks are floating atop the movement. Each sapphire crystal has a different tint, obtained by a unique metallisation process, so that it sets off the color of the mask.
But just a transparent tinted sapphire crystal dial would be too easy! I mentioned poetry earlier on and short poems by Michel Butor, written specially for each mask circle the dial in gold letters.
The poem is placed on the dial via vacuum metallisation, a sophisticated technological process in which the gold letters are sprayed onto the sapphire crystal. The tint of the sapphire crystal changes depending on the light shining on it and the poem can only be read when the light hits the dial at a particular angle giving the watch a different aspect each time you look at it.
The objects having centre stage and giving their name to the collection are the masks, and the utmost attention has been given to their execution. It is difficult to imagine the painstaking process the designers and engravers at Vacheron Constantin went through to achieve the final results.
Two major obstacles needed to be surpassed: creating a faithful reproduction of the mask and obtaining the original (and priceless, may I add) mask from the Barbier-Muller museum of Geneva on loan for a few months. The museum accepted the partnership upon the sole condition that the resemblance to the original masks be identical.
Miniaturising a 25-30cm mask to only a few millimetres (each miniature measures about 20mm and 2mm thick!) is already a difficult task but imagine having to respect not only the proportions but the traces made by the original sculptor's tools as well as those left by time, giving a whole new meaning to the world arduous.
Different attempts were made at such miniaturisation, each unsatisfactory. To create a mask showing the signs of passing time cutting edge technology was required. Vacheron Constantin seeked the expertise in laser technology of the Geneva Engineering School in making three dimensional images of each mask. By putting the plans together on a computer, they were able to modify the volumes point by point to find the best angle for fitting the mask onto the dial while safeguarding the harmony of its forms and proportions.
Another question arose in the materials to use for the masks. Should the original materials such as wood, copper, shell or even hair be used? Some of them had to be rejected right away because impracticable: for example the structure of wood makes it unsuitable for such small sculptures, using real hair was considered gimmicky and copper oxidises. Gold seemed to be the best solution and not only because it is a precious metal: it can be finely worked, colored, treated and it stands the test of time.
Modern technology was also used via laser to cut the gold in a form the engraver could work on. Once the base ready, the engraver's painstaking partition could begin. It was his responsibility to give life and expression to the masks by delicately working on the reliefs, embossments and hollows, chiselling away at the rough patches for example to reproduce the effects of wood on the mask from Gabon and Congo and recreating what really do look like hair sprouting from the top of the polychrome wooden mask from Alaska!
The final challenge was the treatment of color: how to respect the appearance of the mask with its fine polychromy without falling into the trap of creating a simple painted reproduction?
First different types of gold were tried then chemical and galvanic formulae were used and a chemist's bench was recreated with alembics, powders and secret potions which would be quite at home at Hogwarts School of Magic!
For example, to reproduce the effect of copper covered with verdigris on the Chinese mask the engraver developed a novel system of protective coating: small deposits of copper on gold, which were then oxidised (by hanging the mask above acid fumes!) giving the mask its ancient appearance, then lacquered to prevent further oxidisation! The softness of the facial features of the Japanese mask is brought out by flame-gilding and matt pumice-stone powders of different granularity were used and applied using and ear-swab as to reproduce the rough aspect of pottery in the Mexican mask!
In 2007 the first set of masks were presented:
China Death Mask: Quidan people, Liao Dynasty (907-1125) – Yellow gold
It testifies to the extreme sophistication of the Liao Dynasty, founded in 907 by the Quidan chief Yelu Abaoki – later the Emperor Taizong – and totally destroyed two centuries later.
Although they adopted a number of Chinese customs, and despite the strong influence of Buddhism, the Quidan, who came from Inner Mongolia, preserved their own culture and Shamanistic beliefs. According to Jean Paul Barbier-Mueller, "their most original and remarkable creations were their death masks, silver for the nobility, and gilded bronze for those of royal blood."
Alaska Frontal mask: Alaska, north-west coast of the United States, Tlingit Indians. 19th century – white gold
According to tradition, young men training to be shamans had to leave their community and spend eight days searching for their vision. At their approach, animals stuck out their tongues, which were believed to contain the power of their spirit.
The most spectacular moment of a shamanistic ritual was the masked dance. Donning in turn about eight different masks, the shaman transformed himself into each creature represented, whether human or animal. In this way, he asserted his power over beings in this world and the next.
Congo: Etoumbi-Mahongwe - platinum
This is one of the most celebrated masks of African art and a prime example of Central African sculpture. "It has been reproduced umpteen times since 1939 in the form of a detail from Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, nearly always the young lady in the top right corner," Jean Paul Barbier-Mueller pointed out. The painting, finished in 1907, belongs to the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA) and the mask was part of the collections of this famous institution, which had bought it in the belief that it had inspired Picasso. Stylistically, little is known about this mask, which is unique in its genre. Even though it is generally acknowledged to be part of the Kota culture of Gabon, nobody knows which people in north-western Congo – the Mboko, Ngare or Mahongwe – actually made it. According to Louis Perrois, a specialist of the Gabon-Congo region, "it is still impossible to define these objects stylistically and historically, which, in their present state, are among the most remarkable works of the region."
Indonesia Facial mask: Wayang Topeng theatre 19th century – rose gold
Traditionally, performers of Wayang Topeng hold their masks by gripping a rubber strip between their teeth. As they say nothing, it is left to the narrators and singers to develop the plot and recount the adventures of the heroes.
Wayang Topeng has no religious dimension, even though it preserves the ritual and sacred character of the Hindu origins of its tradition.
In 2008 the second set was presented. Either because the surprise effect linked to the first series doesn't come in play here or maybe these four new masks are intellectually more difficult to approach but to my eyes this set has had a less strong impact.
Japan Ritual Buddha Mask: 2nd half of the 19th Century – yellow gold
The mask represents Amida Nyorai meaning "infinite life" or "infinite light" one of the 5 great Buddhas of wisdom. Regarded as the savior of souls, Amida guides believers to a second life after death.
Papua New Guinea Ceremonial Mask - platinum
This mask has both the zoomorphic and anthromorphic characteristics of masks from the mouth of the Sepik River; their very diverse forms all have long noses evoking a bird's beak or an insect's proboscis. The mask is made of painted wood with incrustations of shell
Gabon Kwelé Ritual Mask: collected before 1930 - white gold
This stylized face is characteristic of the work of Kwélé artists. The heart shaped face stands out from the darker grounds by its whiteness. Exhibited in 1931 and then in 1935 at the Museum of Modern art of New York, this mask was one of the objects that revealed the existence of African art to the world.
Mexico Fragment of Maya Censer: between AD 550 and 950 - rose gold
This ceramic portrait is of a Maya noble with a pearl fixed to the cartilage of his nose. The features of the bearded face, sculpted with great attention to proportion and volume, suggest the artists deliberate attempt at naturalism.
Vacheron Constantin truly has a fine history in alternative time displays with achingly gorgeous vintage pieces and not less interesting and varied modern ones. They are probably the only haute horlogerie brand to have continuously offered alternative time displays since the early 90s and the post quartz mechanical watch revival. At SIHH 2009 (to take place in January) Vacheron Cosntantin will be introducing the last set of the Masks collection and I genuinely hope that they will continue offering novel time display pieces after that.
The recent models of alternative time displays offered by Vacheron Constantin are difficult to obtain as they are both limited editions AND have highly artistic dials making the prices rather steep. As an aficionado of such time displays I would love to see Vacheron Constantin offer those who do not have Wall Street investment bank bonuses (pre-Subprime that is) a more affordable jump or wandering hour timepiece as a regular production model.