text: Maserati Ghibli Extends North American Tour FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For information contact: firstname.lastname@example.com Jeffrey Ehoodin, Public Relations Manager: 201-816-2705. firstname.lastname@example.com MASERATI GHIBLI EXTENDS NORTH AMERICAN TOUR Newest Maserati Model Opens Doors in Chicago & Toronto on Heels of Widely Acclaimed Super Bowl Advertisement Englewood Cliffs, NJ, February 6, 2014 – As 2014 marks Maserati's 100th year of craftsmanship, the company continues to embark on a North American tour celebrating its newest product entry – Ghibli. The broadcast debut of Ghibli began in an unexpected 90-second Super Bowl XLVIII ad, the company's first-ever television commercial, positioned at the start of the game and bringing unprecedented positive attention to both Ghibli, and to the Maserati marque. Over the coming weeks Ghibli visits the Chicago and Toronto auto shows, two cities that during the current "polar vortex" can understand the intrinsic value of all-wheel drive. Maserati is particularly proud to showcase its technological advancements in Ghibli and the luxury performance Quattroporte, both proven and capable competitors in rear-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive platforms. According to Peter Grady, President and CEO of Maserati North America, Ghibli upholds the tradition, luxury and performance that have distinguished the brand for a century, while at a more accessible price point broadening Maserati's cache to a whole new set of buyers. "We've worked hard at both design and engineering to bring the first and finest Italian entry to a competitive segment," said Grady. "Our stellar reputation for performance and luxury, infused with the heritage which only a Maserati can provide, makes Ghibli a new and intriguing option." Grady noted that the luxury brand is on a major upswing, with January total monthly sales for North America increasing by more than 212 percent over the same period in 2013. Total sales for calendar year 2013 closed at an unprecedented 72 percent increase in year-to-date sales over 2012, with each of the final six months of 2013 showing year-over-year growth, and the final three months all delivering significant triple digit percent gains. Ghibli has been a strong contributor to the volume growth for Maserati, as the company's first-ever mid-size four-door luxury sports sedan vehicle. First unveiled to the U.S. in November at the Los Angeles Auto Show, Ghibli is available with all-wheel-drive, powered by a Ferrari-built twin-turbo V6 engine capable of more than 400 horsepower, and includes a starting price of $66,900. Ghibli's interior cabin offers rich Italian leathers, woods and other high quality materials that are at the heart of the Maserati brand. The vehicle's advanced suspension, Brembo brakes and extensive use of aluminum, create a very strong value proposition. Equally strong in its own competitive class is the flagship Quattroporte, starting at just over $100,000 and sharing the same dynamic driveline. At the century mark, Maserati is in the strongest position of its lifetime with two brand new sport-sedans, state-of-the-art production facilities and all-time record sales; and is celebrating the centennial with a series of special events and a special website www.maserati100.com. As one of Italy's most iconic luxury sports car brands that has been rooted in racing, Maserati will add the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion August 14-17, 2014 at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, to its year-long celebration, as the event's "featured marque." Maserati "Strikes" with Super Bowl Spot Maserati's entrée into America's most anticipated football game was yet another opportunity to showcase the marque's ability to be "the absolute opposite of ordinary." The 90-second Super Bowl spot "Strike" was directed by American filmmaker David Gordon Green and filmed on location in Los Angeles, depicting hard work, dedication and an en element of surprise – featuring Academy Award-nominated actress Quvenzhane Wallis. "Strike" is a poetic nod to a brand with proven tradition and of the highest standards of quality in the industry – one that has been hard at work engineering an automobile that will usher it into the next 100 years of innovation. Ghibli is an automobile with power and personality capable of striking against the status quo.The spot is relevant to Americans everywhere who have had struggles and obstacles to overcome. It is a reminder that with steadfast commitment to hard work and unwavering passion, we can deal with our own 'giants' around us, we can overcome them and achieve what we set out to do. The broadcast spot was created in partnership with independent advertising agency, Wieden+Kennedy (W+K) based out of Portland, Ore. The campaign also includes several print and digital extensions, including a USA Today Cover Wrap and Yahoo Homepage Takeover, also created in partnership with W+K. http://www.youtube.com/user/maserati. For more information on Maserati, along with photography, press releases and videos, please view https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zhb2vh4lth3uq9l/P1jvpHp33i or on MultiVu at http://www.multivu.com/mnr/65594-maserati-ghibli-extends-north-american-tour-along-with-canadian-debut. About Maserati Maserati produces a full line of two- and four-door models legendary for their spacious handcrafted luxury, thoroughbred performance and everyday usability. The Maserati range includes the all-new full-size Quattroporte and the mid-size Ghibli sport sedan, which earned a 2013 Top Safety Pick from the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety (IIHS)*. The flagship Quattroporte GTS leads the charge with a 523 HP twin turbo V8, while both the Ghibli and Quattroporte are available with All-Wheel-Drive, a competition bred twin-turbo 404 HP V6 and an adaptive 8 speed automatic transmission. The two-door GranTurismo line continues with several variants of coupes and convertibles that combine elegance and comfort for four adults, with a six-speed automatic transmission to keep the legendary Maserati performance and exhaust note close at hand. Maserati automobiles and merchandise can be found at authorized retailers across North America. Information on Maserati can be found at www.maserati.us, 1-800- My-Maserati. *Built after 11/2013 # # # Back to News


text:
On September 14th, 2017, we published revised versions of our Privacy Policy, Terms of Service and Website Use Policy and published a Cookie Policy. Your continued use of Lynda.com means you agree to these revised documents, so please take a few minutes to read and understand them.
By Chris Mattia | Thursday, May 28, 2009
The world of academia is abuzz this month with the recent announcement that Blackboard, the leading commercially available course management system (CMS), is acquiring competitor Angel Learning. The current issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education, Volume LV, Number 37, highlights this discussion with a front page article 'Blackboard Buys Another Rival, to Customers' Dismay.' The article notes that many colleges are considering a shift to open source course management systems such as Moodle and Sakai, but the primary stumbling block is training and support for their faculty and students.
This week, lynda.com is releasing two titles in the Online Training Library® specifically for teachers and students using the Moodle open source learning management system. As the Educational Technologist at Art Center College of Design, I work very closely with the great folks at lynda.com to provide training and support to our entire campus community. Art Center has recently launched our own campus implementation of Moodle and the response from our faculty and students has been so positive that I just had to share this experience with all of you by creating these two titles at lynda.com.
If you're making the jump to Moodle for your campus, or even if you're already using it, my goal with Moodle Essential Training for Teachers is to quickly bring you up to speed on everything needed to build courses in Moodle. The companion training, Moodle Essential Training for Students, was designed to get all of the students at your institution a leg up in learning to efficiently use the latest version of Moodle. We're looking forward to hearing what you think of the courses, and hope you'll share your experience using Moodle or other open source learning management systems.
You can change your email preferences at any time. We will never sell your email. More info
Thanks for signing up.
We'll send you a confirmation email shortly.
Sign up and receive emails about lynda.com and our online training library:
Here's our privacy policy with more details about how we handle your information.
Keep up with news, tips, and latest courses with emails from lynda.com.
We've updated our terms and conditions (now called terms of service).Go Review and accept our updated terms of service.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
See that picture on the right? That's a screen cap of Todd Helton catching a throw from a teammate while two to three feet off the bag. The runner, Jerry Hairston, was apparently called out by umpire Tim Welke (image via FanGraphs.com).
Of course, Tigers fans aren't strangers to blown calls. The memory of Jim Joyce's blown call on what would have been the 27th and final out of Armando Galarraga's 2010 perfect game won't be easily wiped from the mind of any Detroiter*.
*A Google image search for 'Armando Galarraga' yields a handful of file photos and dozens upon dozens of pictures (from all angles) of Miguel Cabrera's throw beating Cleveland's Jason Donald by a full step.
In fairness to umpires, many safe/out plays that fans grumble about are so close that it would be impossible to get them all correct at game speed with the naked eye. But that doesn't mean that baseball shouldn't do something to correct these calls; both the grossly incorrect and the bang-bang varieties.no comments
The numbers aren't particularly flashy for Patrick Leyland: one home run, one double, and eleven singles in 46 at-bats, but the .283 batting average that the above line produces is good for third on this year's West Michigan Whitecaps team.
I don't believe that batting average tells us anything useful about a player's value at the plate, but it does, perhaps, give us an indication (in conjunction with his walk and strikeout rates) of the hitter's approach at the plate. Leyland's 2012 numbers present an interesting case. He has only been called out on strikes in 16.7% of his plate appearances, which is probably a bit below (better than) the average player. But his relatively low strikeout rate isn't necessarily a sign of great discipline because he's only drawn a single walk (2.1%).
We see a similar, though slightly different pattern if we also include his numbers from his last two years in short-season leagues (2010 in the Gulf Coast League, and 2011in the New York-Penn League). For his minor league career, Leyland has only fanned in 10.4% of his plate appearances, and walked in 4.4% of them. So, it appears as though he has tended to swing at the ball to make (any) contact instead of selecting pitches to drive. His career .253 BABIP probably supports this thought, though he's only had 339 total plate appearances.no comments
Andy Dirks has jumped out to a pretty good start with the bat this season. He's collected nine hits in 32 at-bats for a rather good .281 batting average. His contact ability and low strikeout rate (just 9.1% this year) appear to make him a prime candidate to hit at the top of the lineup (perhaps number two behind Austin Jackson), but Dirks' inability to draw a walk would be a hindrance to the club in that position.
Dirks has drawn a walk in only 4.1% of his plate appearances in his major league career (none yet this season). That rate is about half that of what a league average hitter would draw. If he continues his career with that type of a walk rate, then he would need to be a .290-.300 hitter in order to maintain an on-base percentage in the .330-.340 range that's considered to be league average.
But in order to maintain that type of batting average, even with his fairly low 14.6% career strikeout rate, Dirks would have to maintain a BABIP in the .335-.340 range. That's not impossibly high, but only 47 players have maintained a career BABIP at or above .335 since 1990. That's only 4.6% of all batters that have played in that timeframe.no comments
We're still less than a month into the season, but the Tigers have already had a revolving door installed in the bullpen. Daniel Schlereth, Thad Weber, Brayan Villarreal, and Luke Putkonen have all spent part of the year in Detroit and part in Toledo (Villarreal and Putkonen are currently up). Adam Wilk was called up to replace an injured Doug Fister in the rotation, but he was sent back down after three fairly ineffective starts forcing the team to pull Duane Below out of the bullpen and into the rotation for at least one start.
All of this movement has made for a very unsettled front-end of the bullpen – a weakness that has been exacerbated by the surprising lack of offense. And even though the Tigers should have Luis Marte and Al Alburquerque both returning from injury to help solidify the relief pitching, I don't think we've necessarily seen the last Mud Hen join the bullpen this season.
32 year old Chris Bootcheck is probably among the top contenders to get a shot in Detroit should the Tigers dip back into their farm system for a reliever. Bootcheck was a top-ten prospect in the Angels organization in 2000, 2001, and 2002, but now, ten years later, he's fighting to re-start a big league career that never really got going.no comments
The Erie SeaWolves (Detroit's AA affiliate) have only one hitter on their team younger than 24 years of age. That player is 22 year-old catching prospect Rob Brantly*.
*Brantly will turn 23 this season, but since his birthday is after June 1, roughly the halfway point in a season, this year can be said to be his 'age 22 season'.
I mention age in particular because it should be a significant disadvantaged to Brantly. Only 19 hitters in the Eastern League are in their age 22 season or younger (with only five of them being 21 years old or younger). So, needless to say, Brantly is playing in a league that's quite advanced for his age (the average player age for both pitchers and hitters in Double-A leagues is just north of 24 years).no comments
It's been a long time since the Tigers have had a position player prospect as exciting as Nick Castellanos. We're now used to seeing hot pitching names like Justin Verlander, Rick Porcello, and Jacob Turner in the Tigers' organization, but I don't know that I can name another hitter that has had a realistic "All-Star" ceiling. I guess Curtis Granderson came up through the system with some pomp and circumstance, and appeared as a Top 100 prospect. But before Granderson it had probably been since Eric Munson that the Tigers had a hitter to be excited about (it's a downer that I bring up Munson in a post about Castellanos, isn't it?).
And so far, Castellanos has done nothing to quiet interest in his development as a hitter. After putting up a very nice .803 OPS in West Michigan last year as a 19 year-old (including a very, very slow April), Castellanos has jumped out of the gate in High-A Lakeland this spring. Through 74 plate appearances, Castellanos has for a slash line of .386/.430/.514.
This is the part of the post where I lay down the standard BABIP warning about how you can't expect a hitter to maintain an overly-elevated average on balls in play (Castellanos' is a grotesquely high .481 this year), but I'm not all that concerned about BABIP with Castellanos. Of course, he won't be able to maintain that average, but if there's anyone that's likely to have a high BABIP skill, it's a hitter like him. His minor league career BABIP of .418 likely includes more than a bit of good fortune, but he profiles as the type hitter that could maintain a higher (or much higher) than average BABIP.no comments
The Tigers announced yesterday that Brandon Inge has been given an unconditional release, and that Brad Eldred's contract had been purchased from the minor leagues. I think this move was more about Eldred's power and the need for runs than it was about simply letting Inge go due to his underperformance, but someone had to get the boot. Inge hadn't produced with the bat in quite some time, and his case for a roster spot certainly wasn't helped by Miguel Cabrera's better-than-anyone-could-have-dared-to-dream transition to third base.
I'm sad to see Inge go because he did have a valuable career here in Detroit for many years (about 2.0 WAR/600 PA which is about what you'd expect from an average starter), but I don't think anyone can argue that it was probably time for everyone to move on.
So the Tigers will look to Brad Eldred, the slugging 32 year old first baseman/designated hitter, to try to provide the offense with a boost. But what should we expect to see from the man who dinged 13 home runs in 20 games this year in Toledo?no comments


text:
On the Street: Color Combo Spotting
"Black is dramatic and daring. It has that forbidden quality, which is irresistible. I think of sexy black negligees and fast black cars. A room painted black is a place where you can tell secrets. The semigloss finish gives it an edge, like patent leather, and makes everything pop. You have to be very confident to use black, and that kind of confidence is very attractive." -Nancy Boszhardt
Benjamin Moore Black Satin 2131-10
"Chinese lacquer red reminds me of opium dens, Hong Kong, and 19th-century Englishmen who went on a bender in the South China Sea and never came back again. This deep wet red is a luscious, voluptuous fever dream. Slicked onto dining room walls, it's exciting and provocative — and flirtation over dinner is my favorite form of sexiness." -Kathryn M. Ireland
Benjamin Moore Heritage Red Ext. Rm.
A Blue and White Farmhouse Kitchen


text:
Vintage Camo Duvet Cover + Pillowcases
No longer available
- Overview
Our authentic camo pattern is printed on soft cotton.
- 100% cotton percale.
- Pre-washed for added softness.
- Duvet cover and pillowcases reverse to self.
- Duvet cover has interior ties and hidden button closure.
- Twin size duvet cover fits both standard twin and twin XL dorm mattresses.
- Duvet cover, pillowcases and inserts sold separately.
- Machine wash.
- Personalization is available for an additional $9.50.
- Click here to Preview Font Colors.
- Imported.
Mix + match our bedding to create your own unique look with our Design Your Own Bed Tool.
- Dimensions + Care
Duvet Cover
- Twin: 68 x 86"
- Full/Queen: 90 x 88"
- Standard: 20 x 30"
- Made of 100% cotton percale with 5% organic cotton fibers.
- Oeko-Tex certified organic, the definitive mark of excellence for products that are healthy for people and the environment.
- Our EZ-Care finish ensures that bedding emerges smooth from the dryer, and eliminates the need for ironing.
- Finished with interior ties and a button closure to keep the duvet in place.
- Machine wash in warm water; gentle cycle.
- Use only nonchlorine bleach, if needed.
- Tumble dry on low heat.
- Warm iron as needed.
- Shipping Info
This item will arrive in 3-5 business days. Please proceed to the Payment & Review page of Checkout for a precise delivery estimate.
Duvet Cover
No longer available
Pillowcases, Set of 2 (Sold Separately)
No longer available
You May Also Need
Favorite Tee Sheet Set
Sheet Set
Please Select Size: Twin/Twin XL
Please Select Color:
$28.50 – $119
- More Colors
Down Duvet Inserts
Duvet Insert
Please Select Size: Twin
Please Select Type:
$189 – $249
Down Alternative Duvet Inserts
Duvet Insert
Please Select Size: Twin
Please Select Type:
$99 – $179
Premium Down Duvet Insert
Premium Down Comforter
Please Select Size:
$199 – $269
Pillow Inserts
Premium Down Pillow


text:
All the new owners are available, so if no one has an issue with it, let's start the draft at 8:00 a.m. Indy time, Sat, August 28, in this very thread.
There will be no time limit, but obviously, the quicker we can get it done, the better.
If you feel the need to slip me a contigency list, feel free.
Once again, here's a list of the available players (as the draft goes on, I'll delete players from the list and repost it):
Players available for the expansion draft
G Rajon Rondo (BOS)--bulldog
G Tyreke Evans (SAC)---Soup Is Good
G Aaron Brooks (HOU)---Diamond Dave
G Jerryd Bayless (POR)---Soup is Good
GF Kevin Durant (OKL)—Diamond Dave
F Louis Amundson (PHO)---Frostwolf
CF Andrea Bargnani (TOR)---Soup is Good
CF Matt Bonner (SAS)---Bellisimo
F J.J. Hickson (CLE)---Bulldog
F Taj Gibson (CHI)---Bulldog
GF Shane Battier (HOU)---Soup is Good
CF Juwan Howard (POR)
G Baron Davis (LAC)--Frostwolf
G Gilbert Arenas (WAS)--Frostwolf
G Jeff Teague (ATL)---Diamond Dave
GF Grant Hill (PHO)---Frostwolf
GF Josh Howard (WAS)---Frostwolf
GF Ron Artest (LAL)---Diamond Dave
C Yao Ming (HOU)---bulldog
C Nazr Mohammed (CHA)---Soup is Good
CF Drew Gooden (LAC)---Frostwolf
C Dan Gadzuric (MIL)--Bellisimo
CF Hilton Armstrong (HOU)---Bulldog
FG Ronnie Brewer (MEM)---Frostwolf
F LeBron James (CLE)--Frostwolf
CF Carlos Boozer (UTA)---Bellisimo
CF Darko Milicic (MIN)---bulldog
GF Josh Smith (ATL)---Soup is Good
GF Joe Johnson (ATL)--Bellisimo
F Udonis Haslem (MIA)___Bulldog
G Beno Udrih (SAC)---Bellisimo
G Shaun Livingston (WAS)---Diamond Dave
G Wayne Ellington (MIN)---Soup is Good
CF Mehmet Okur (UTA)---Diamond Dave
CF Antonio McDyess (SAS)---Bellisimo
C Kendrick Perkins (BOS)---Frostwolf
C Brendan Haywood (DAL)---Frostwolf
G O.J. Mayo (MEM)---Diamond Dave
G Jarrett Jack (TOR)---Bellisimo
G Toney Douglas (NYK)---Bulldog
F Danilo Gallinari (NYK)---bulldog
F Jeff Green (OKL)---Diamond Dave
F Hakim Warrick (CHI)---Bellisimo
F Brandon Bass (ORL)---Bulldog
F Thaddeus Young (PHI)---Diamond Dave
GF Anthony Parker (CLE)--Soup is Good
F Brandan Wright (GSW)---Bulldog
CF Solomon Jones (IND)
C Samuel Dalembert (PHI)---Soup Is Good
CF Jermaine Oneal (MIA)--Diamond Dave
CF Elton Brand (PHI)---Diamond Dave
C Hasheem Thabeet (MEM)---Soup is Good
F Antawn Jamison (CLE)---Bellisimo
F Tyrus Thomas (CHA)--Frostwolf
G Devin Harris (NJN)---Bellisimo
FG Corey Maggette (GSW)---Soup is Good
CF JaVale McGee (WAS)--Soup is Good
G Louis Williams (PHI)--Bellisimo
FG Paul Pierce (BOS)--Bellisimo
G Rodrigue Beaubois (DAL)---Bulldog


text:
If you've ever wanted to learn how to re-size your photos so that you can create a layout featuring more than your basic size prints, then today's tutorial by Stephanie Umpleby will be right up your alley!
Do you ever have many pictures from the same event that you want to include but don't want to create multiple scrapbook pages to include them? Smaller pictures are the answer! But, if you don't have your own printer, how do you do it? One answer is Picasa.
With Picasa, you can make collages of pictures. You can set the collage size to standard printing sizes (4x6, 5x7, 8x10, etc) print a bunch of small photos inexpensively. Here is how you do it!
First, download Picasa if you don't have it. It is a free photo editing program from the Google guys, it works pretty well, and is Mac and PC compatible. Next add your photo folders to Picasa. This is very easy to do, and as long as always save to the same location on your computer, it is a one-time thing. Go to File, and then Add Folder to Picasa. I have mine set to "scan always" our picture hard drive, so each time I open the program it is up to date.
If you have a big folder of photos and only want to use some of them, you need to sort out the ones you want to use. There are two options. First, you can "star" the photos, which will put them in the Starred Photos folder. To "star" a photo, all you have to do is click on the star icon near the bottom center of the screen. You can "unstar" the same way. Starred photos will have a little star appearing in the bottom right corner of the screen for easy reviewing. You can also make a new folder and copy the images there too. Normally I start with the starring process, and if I want to keep the folder for later, I then export the starred photos to a new folder.
Now that you have your photos, you have some decisions to make. The first is what kind of collage you want to make.
- A picture pile allows you to move the pictures around and alter the size and angle of the pictures. The "default" pile is normally not very appealing, but with some maneuvering, you can end up with some cute results.
- A mosaic creates a square/rectangle grid of pictures, trying to fit all of the images as best as possible. You can have it shuffle the pictures and drag them around, but it doesn't give you 100% control over where the pictures are located.
- Frame mosaic puts one picture in the middle and the others around the outside as a frame.
- Grid gives you equal-sized rectangles of all of the images you choose. There are two other options, but I don't think they are very useful for scrapbooking (contact sheet and multiple exposure).
I like the picture pile and mosaic for my kids' monthly update photos because I can include all of the "good" pictures from the month into one picture that I then email to friends and family (and later scrap as one photo). For vacation pictures, I love the grid collage because I print out several photos at once and then decide how to scrap them later. If I did a picture pile or mosaic, I would have less freedom in scrapping because it is harder to break those collages up.
Here are some tricks to the grid collage.
- First, sort your pictures by direction (landscape vs. portrait).
- Select the perfect number. I prefer to select a perfect square (4, 9, 16, …). Doing these two things will keep the aspect ratio of your photos almost unchanged, which means the program won't crop the picture much. You could crop all of the images to begin with, but otherwise Picasa does the cropping "automatically" and the results aren't always desirable. Also, if you chose a non-square number, check to see if there are duplicates included in the collage. Picasa does this if it thinks the best layout would be met by including one or two more photos.
Here are the actual steps to making the collage.
1. Select your photos. All of the photos you select should appear in the selection box at the bottom left of the screen. I normally use Ctrl, Click or Shift, Click for this.
2. Click on Collage (at the bottom center of the screen).
3. Change any settings you want on the collage.
- The top setting is for the type of collage.
- Grid spacing adjusts the border around each photo.
- Background color is the color of the border/grid lines and the background of a picture pile.
- Page format allows you to choose the print size (including a custom option so you can do any size you want) and direction.
4. Shuffle or drag the pictures around if you need to.
5. Create the collage
Here is a page done using only 4x6 collages from Picasa. I kept one as a whole 4x6, then I cut many of the others in half. I used the last print as two square pieces and as individual pictures at the bottom.
Thank you Stephanie for the great tutorial! I'm excited to incorporate a little more of the unique photo sizing with Mid Week Mojo sketches and will be able to point everyone in the direction of this tutorial to help them create those unique-sized photos for layouts. Speaking of, the sketch for tomorrow does incorporate some smaller photos. :)
If you have an idea that you'd like to share with us, please send it to email@example.com. We want to keep your ideas coming. Next week we have a great tutorial by Brittany Perry which you will simply not want to miss!
Be sure to check in tomorrow morning for Mid Week Mojo. For those of you that want to get started with smaller photos, the sketch includes one 4x6 vertical and four 2.5 x 1.75 photos.
Have a great day and scrap happy!


text:
NMCA Extreme Street
I'm a fan of sportsman-level street car racing--understatement of the year, right? In fact, I'm beyond infatuated with big-horsepower cars that can run a number. And yes, I'm just as guilty as any of you when it comes to spending a bit more than I should at times. But seriously, does it really matter? Sure, there's always a way to justify the extra expenditure, but more importantly, you have to know going into it that it's a losing proposition, with minimal chance of ever recovering your losses. It isn't until you've accepted the nature of the sport that you're able to fully comprehend why we're so willing to strap ourselves into these cars. In short, while it may not seem like the most responsible answer, the quickest, easiest response when asked why we're willing to pour so much into our sport is: "Because it's fun!?!?"
If this sounds all too familiar to you, welcome to the club. And I have a bit of good news to share: We've recently partnered up with the National Muscle Car Association and Vortech Engineering, becoming the presenting sponsor of the NMCA's '09 Vortech Engineering Xtreme Street class.
I won't get into the specifics here because next month we'll have a detailed rundown on the class itself, including the people who compete in it and the complete evolution of the class. I have to admit that Xtreme Street is a personal favorite of mine, and I've been following the class since its inception. We're talking about stock-appearing cars that have dipped into the 7s but generally run deep into the 8-second marker. Sound easy? Think again. Xtreme Street requires a stock-style chassis, is restricted to a 10.6-inch-wide slick, has a max cubic inch limit--and wheelie bars are denied!
Through this joint venture, you can expect additional race coverage for racers and fans alike, both in the magazine and on our site, chevyhiperformance.com. But there's more to it than race coverage. If you can make it to any of the events we're planning to attend, we'll be on the prowl for potential feature cars. Bear in mind, this isn't limited to race cars by any means, as the NMCA also puts on a car show at every venue. Seriously, is there anything better than hanging out with your family and close friends and getting to show off your street/strip machines?
And with that, I'm out of here. I have clothes to pack, camera gear to load up, and a plane to catch if I want to make this weekend's NMCA season opener at Bradenton Motorsports Park in Bradenton, Florida. Actually, there's one more thing. If you're planning to attend any of the races this season and have a car that fits our style, send me an email at firstname.lastname@example.com, and be sure to include a large-format image of your ride and its vital powertrain specs. Maybe we can set up a shoot well in advance.


text:
Feb 26, 2013 | 220 Pages
"A fresh, modern approach to edible landscaping, Stefani and Leslie's creative ideas and beautiful designs are inspiration for novice and master gardeners alike."
—Rosalind Creasy, author of Edible Landscaping
"This thoughtful, refreshing design guide deserves a spot on every gardener's bookshelf! Filled with real-life examples, the book definitively shows that growing food and creating beautiful, livable outdoor spaces are not mutually exclusive. Reading The Beautiful Edible Garden is akin to working alongside Leslie and Stefani in your garden—their practical, friendly advice provides an easy-to-follow framework for transforming average yards into functional, productive, and above all, lovely gardens."
—Willi Galloway, author of Grow Cook Eat: A Food Lover's Guide to Vegetable Gardening
1. Principles for Successful Edible Garden Design
2. Creating Your Beautiful Edible Garden
3. The Beautiful Edible Front Yard
4. The Beautiful Edible Backyard
5. Beautiful Edible Containers, Window Boxes,
Side Yards, and Other Small Spaces
6. Planting and Maintaining Your Beautiful Edible Garden
About the Authors and Contributors


text:
Warrior Kings - PC - Preview
Young Artos has gone from the child of the lord of the House of Cravant to an outcast, working to restore his name, and power to wreak vengeance on those responsible for his predicament. But it is a harsh land, filled with unsavory characters, and the path home is long.
Warrior Kings, from Black Cactus and Microids, is a real-time strategy game with a few RPG elements, a solid storyline and excellent graphics. It should be mentioned that the preview version of the game did not support all the features that will be in place in the final release.
Warrior Kings takes place on a landmass (Orbis) that bears some semblance to Europe. It is a medieval fantasy game that melds history with fantasy to produce a land rife with challenge.
For example, after Artos flees his homeland and arrives on the island of Angland, his purpose is to establish a new stronghold and rebuild the fortunes of the House Cravant. The section of the land where he finds himself is Jarlsford, and it is overrun with bandit barons and barbarian chiefs, each at odds with the others. Baron Ragnar is the biggest and baddest of them all. Artos, and his retainers, find an abandoned manor, which will become their base. Not far away are villages beset by clansmen.
Artos and his men ride into the fray, save the village and are rewarded with their loyalty. The villagers are put to work gathering resources - a key element of most RTS/civ games. It takes gold to pay the army, and food to feed them. The peasants will gather wood, mine and tend farms. Carts will transfer the harvest to the appropriate storage complexes. The bad guys will attack the supply route and force its defense.
After a few minor skirmishes, Artos comes across a village where the chieftain's son has been taken by barbarians, who are channeling their powers through him to open a portal to hell, unleashing demons. The key is to rescue the chief's son (which isn't easy) in order to close the portal.
Players will be tasked to manage resources, and learn the major elements of battle. This is a game that really requires strategy and knowledge of units. Great emphasis, in the tutorial, is placed on knowing which units do well against which other type of units. Almost a rock-paper-scissors philosophy, but still highly appropriate. You can't expect a column of archers to do well against the charge of fast, light cavalry.
The key to success in Angland is to defeat Ragnar, either through diplomacy or combat. Once that is accomplished, players will be able to forge the alliance that may help overthrow to iron-fisted, and highly misguided mystic cleric-led armies that are ruling the world.
As mentioned, military strategy is a key element to this game. Control of land features also plays a big part. Siege warfare comes into play with machines such as the trebuchet, and you can develop scouts, and spies.
Warrior Kings features two modes of play, the single player campaign (which will feature three game paths) and the campaign (which will allow up to eight players).
The game graphics are three-dimensional, with camera flexibility. The animation is fairly good, but if you get too close to some of the environmental elements, they have a tendency to look like huge pixel blobs - especially the hills, which look fine from a distance. The sound is precisely what one would expect from a game in this genre.
Though no manual accompanied the preview disk, this game was easy to navigate through. The player interface is well designed, and for those who have had any kind of experience with this genre, you should be able to jump right in and play.
The campaign will feature 22 levels (each progressively harder) with more than 80 quests.
If there is one element of this game that is especially worth note, it is the size of the mapboards. This game is huge in terms of landmass. Some of the cities, even Artos' home of Cravant (which seems relatively small when compared to some others) are incredible in the size, use and style of buildings, and have all the accoutrements of a medieval fiefdom. Just panning and zooming around a city is a wonderful experience.
In many ways Warrior Kings is much like other RTS games, but with the size of the mapboard, the levels and quests, and the nice twist (in Artos' case) of an exile proving himself in another land before returning home for vengeance, this program will distinguish itself from the pack.


text:
Dressing for power has always been a problem of pomp versus accessibility. The Egyptians looked frankly absurd with those wigs and carnival hats. The Romans got it a bit better with golden laurel wreaths and an imperial purple dye made from sea snails. It was a colour that never faded, and in fact, grew brighter with sunlight, therefore being not just a toga but also a parable.
But one only has to look at some of today's less salubrious world leaders (Colonel Gaddafi springs to mind for some reason) - many of whom are packing away their uniforms and self-gifted medals in preparation for imminent exile in some suburban city that few can pinpoint on a map - to see how many of them are utterly clueless when it comes to platinum-card leadership dressing.
Perhaps the most successful megalomaniac power dresser was a Chinese man who came up with a suit that was like Jil Sander crossed with the Artful Dodger, with its distinctive practical touch of military and a bit of agriculture. Chairman Mao's suit is one of the greatest designs of the 20th century. The abiding problem with a dictator is: do you look like the people you rule or do you look imposing and different? Instead of dressing like everyone else, Chairman Mao brilliantly dressed differently, and then had everyone dress like him. Every time they looked in the mirror they saw the Mao Tse-tung brand.
Very, very few heads of state look good in military uniforms - they invariably come across all Gilbert and Sullivan - while the diplomatic lounge suit makes the line-up of European heads of state resemble a tax lawyers' annual board meeting. The trouble with politicians in suits is that the suits are rarely well made and the whole tie thing is so studied and constipated. You know that there are teams of people choosing the right tie. It's embarrassing for a grown man, and Windsor knots should be banned: they're just way too CNN pundit.
Those who've managed to get it right, after Chairman Mao, and President Mobutu Sese Soku from the Congo, with his great leopard-skin toque and the Jarvis Cocker glasses, tend to have little in common. I would suggest Marshal Tito, for one, was bang on the buck: if you are going to do the whole military thing, Marshal Tito's white uniforms were properly elegant. But the most successful of the lot at dressing the part of powerful leader during times of trouble wasn't a dictator at all: it was President Abraham Lincoln. In the middle of a civil war he looked like a minister, an undertaker and as imposing as a grey tree. Basic black with a good hat, you can't go wrong.


text:
Winchesters Original Ghost Walk
Tue 20/09/16 8:30 PM - 9:30 PM
Get ready to discover the ghosts of Winchester in this Ultimate Ghost Walk Experience! Our guides will take you on a journey around the city's historic streets sharing its many secrets with you. You'll hear about the bloody plots of treason, horrific deaths and tales of dark deeds that all took place.
Along the way you will encounters some of the city's tormented souls who tell you their stories. Prepare to meet Lady Lisle who spent her final night in Winchester before being publicly executed and prepare to find out about the bloody curdling accounts of Winchester Prison.
The tour starts in one of the oldest pubs in the UK, The Royal Oak. We will be meeting downstairs where you can purchase drinks before we set off around Winchester. The walk will take around an hour before finishing back at the Royal Oak where you can join us back down stairs and have a chat about your experiences with our team. The bar will still be open so you can purchase refreshments again.
Ghost Walk experience is a theatrical tour including live actors.
You can turn up and pay on the night, but we do recommend prior booking as they are very popular!
|Contact Info
|Email Contact: firstname.lastname@example.com
Phone Enquiries: 07516103947
|Pricing Details
|£6.00 per person.
Royal Oak Passage
|Website address


text:
Delray Beach, Fla. Office Depot Monday launched the company's fifth annual Green Book catalog of environmentally preferable office products. The Green Book, first launched in 2003, features nearly 2,200 of the chain's greenest products—from recycled paper and remanufactured ink and toner cartridges to compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) and Greenguard certified furniture. Delray Beach
Office Depot also offers an additional 3,000+ office products with green attributes, ranging from remanufactured to rechargeables.


text:
I've been banging the drum on this for a long time, but now, it seems the end is really here.
As Carolyn Giardina and Adrian Pennington report in today's Hollywood Reporter, "by the end of this year, distributors may no longer deliver film prints to theaters in North America. Cans full of reels of celluloid will be a thing of the analog past. When it comes to movies, and how they are distributed, the digital revolution will be complete. The signs are all there — and there have been plenty of warnings.
At Showest, the predecessor to CinemaCon, in 2011, National Association of Theatre Owners president John Fithian predicted that the domestic distribution of movies on celluloid could cease before the end of 2013. Fithian reported that Fox had already notified exhibitors of its intent to end film distribution in the U.S. within two years. He predicted, 'No one should rely on the distribution of film prints much longer.'
By the end of 2012, 90,000, or 75 percent, of the world's cinema screens had gone digital, according to Michael Karagosian, president of MKPE Consulting. He reports that 85 percent of the screens in North America had already made the digital switch, as have 67 percent in Europe. Studios welcomed the change, since it will ultimately be less expensive for them to distribute films digitally rather than have to ship cans of film around the country. Exhibitors, initially wary because of concerns about the expense of converting their auditoriums, ultimately came aboard once the studios agreed to virtual print fees that have helped subsidize the costs of the transition.
As a result, when a studio now releases a title wide in North America — sending it out to 2,000-2,500 theaters — they typically make just a small number of prints, maybe 300, according to Claude Gagnon, president of Technicolor Creative Services. But for those who still rely on film, from production companies to distributors to theater owners, the future is now uncertain. In fact, studios and filmmakers might not be in control of their own destiny."
By the end of 2013, it seems, film will be gone; like it or not, it's a digital world.


text:
Topic: Ascites and antibiotics
My husband received a call from the oncologist's nurse today about his CT scan results. The good news is that the tumors in his liver have not changed. However, the scan indicated that he has fluid in his abdomen. (His past scans showed mild ascites but the amount of fluid has increased.) The nurse said that the doctor wants him to start antibiotics immediately as he hopes they may take care of the problem. Does anyone understand how antibiotics could reduce ascites? I can't understand the connection.


text:
ANIMART, Inc. announces the addition of Steven Hunt as marketing associate of the dairy and livestock division which provides animal health products, supplies and solutions to producers.
In his role, Hunt will aid website maintenance, manage manufacturer rebate programs, coordinate catalog development and assist in improving website communications and sales by continuous updates on social media sites. As a marketing associate, he will also support the marketing communication efforts to introduce new products, programs and services to the ANIMART sales team and ANIMART customer base.
"ANIMART is excited to have Steve as part of our team," says Dan Ellsworth, President of ANIMART. "He possesses vast marketing communication skills, as well as a customer-focused mindset which will ensure producer clarity on manufacturer rebates and product benefits."
Hunt is a 2011 graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, with a bachelor of science in journalism and an emphasis in advertising. During college, Hunt gained experience through an advertising internship with Fox Valley Special Olympics and a marketing internship with Farmers Insurance Agency. Hunt brings to the position a sound knowledge of advertising and public relations, as well as skills in Photoshop, InDesign and journalism which he garnered through internships and coursework.
Established in 1982 and headquartered in Beaver Dam, Wis., ANIMART, Inc. is a privately held provider of animal health and veterinary products as well as show equipment for dairy and livestock producers. ANIMART is committed to offering a full line of products and solutions to help dairy and livestock businesses succeed. More information about the company and its products can be accessed at www.animart.com.


text:
Columbus, Ohio -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Monday it has worked with SolarCity to install solar panels on 12 Walmart stores and Sam's Clubs throughout Ohio.
The solar panel installations will add approximately 6,000,000 kWh of generation production – enough energy to power more than 820 homes – and are expected to supply approximately 5%-20% of each store's overall electricity use.
"We are committed to increasing the use of renewable energy resources, including solar panels, at our stores in Ohio and throughout the country," said David Ozment, Walmart senior director of energy.
The Walmart stores and Sam's Clubs receiving solar power systems are located in Mason, Xenia, Greenville, Austintown, Middletown, Franklin, Youngstown, Toledo, Milford, Loveland, and two systems in Cincinnati.
Walmart has an aspirational goal is to be powered 100% by renewable energy.


text:
The views and opinions expressed in this post are solely those of the author. These views and opinions do not represent those of the Post News Network and/or any/all contributors to this site
by Alan Jilka, Businessman and former Mayor of Salina
"While we've been busy promoting democracy abroad our own has kind of gone off the rails at home." – Thomas Pickering, retired U.S. diplomat
Individuals channel surfing late at night a couple months ago might have come across an interview with Thomas Pickering on PBS in which he uttered the above statement. His comments came back to me this past week while watching our federal government sit paralyzed with dysfunction.
Pickering has the experience and perspective to offer insightful commentary on the subject. During a long and distinguished career in the Foreign Service he served as U.S. Ambassador to Russia, India, Israel, El Salvador, Nigeria, Jordan and the United Nations. In addition to his native English he speaks fluent French, Spanish and Swahili, and is proficient in Arabic, Hebrew and Russian. In short, he has seen quite a bit of the rest of the world and has in-depth knowledge of how various peoples try to govern themselves around the globe.
During most of the interview he offered his thoughts on foreign policy – issues ranging from the Arab Spring to Syria and China. But for the final moments the interviewer brought him back home and asked a few questions regarding domestic policy. Pickering offered a few general comments before zeroing in on the partisan polarization that grips Congress, frequently grinding the business of governing to a halt.
A couple months later the problem to which he alluded is on display for all to see. Clearly the U.S. House is no longer the part of our government that reflects the popular will. Public opinion surveys at the beginning of this month consistently showed that over seventy percent of those polled opposed linking the Affordable Care Act to keeping the government open or to raising the debt ceiling. Even majorities of those opposed to the new health care law also opposed efforts to hold the government hostage to demands to defund it. Yet here we are in a place where few wanted to be.
Our partisan polarization has real consequences in the international sphere as well as fostering an attitude of cynicism among our own citizens. Ian Bremmer, President of the Eurasia Group, an international political consulting firm, wrote this past week that "American dysfunction at home is undermining our credibility abroad." He singled out the fact that President Obama had to cancel a trip to an Asian summit to deal with the government crisis at home, effectively ceding the leadership position at the gathering to the ascendant Chinese. The group photo of leaders taken at the summit showed Chinese President Xi Jinping front and center with American Secretary of State John Kerry (not a head of state) in the back row.
So where do we start to get our government functioning again? Never mind whether one likes/dislikes President Obama or John Boehner. How do we address the systemic problems that lead to this inability to deal with critical issues facing us?
Pickering suggests a starting place – undoing the gerrymandering of congressional districts. Due to extreme gerrymandering the majority of congressional races nowadays are decided in primaries. Politicians respond by running towards the extremes. With so few members of the "people's house" coming from competitive districts (only nineteen Republican congressmen, for example, come from districts won by President Obama in 2012), there is little reason to compromise. Competitive congressional districts would give members more incentive to compromise and appeal towards the political center where most of the populace lies.
We can only hope that the current crisis will give added impetus to efforts to "fix" flaws in our democratic system. The wisdom of retired public servants like Thomas Pickering can guide our efforts and help channel our anger and frustration in a positive direction. Hopefully our current quagmire will give impetus to movements to refine and perfect our country's great experiment with democracy.


text:
iHerb Customer Reviews
A lovely face oil.
Verified Purchase
A lovely face oil.
It smells and feels good.My mother, a harsh critic, liked it very much as well.
Was this review helpful to you?
A lovely face oil.
Posted by iHerb Customer on Oct 24, 2012 | Verified Purchase
It smells and feels good.My mother, a harsh critic, liked it very much as well.
Truly Healing!
Posted by Diana-goes-bananas on Aug 10, 2014 | Verified Purchase
Wow! I am shocked! I never, ever thought this would be as good as it is. I almost can't believe it. I have used many different natural oils (with no chemicals) and this is by far the best I have ever used. It smells herbal, but not overwhelming and is clear. I have seborrheic dermatitis on my scalp, and two days ago I thought I would give it a go. I took one of my smaller detailer make-up brushes and put some on my worst spots. Some of them were red and very inflamed and almost bleeding. To my surprise, the red and almost the whole spot was almost impossible to find today. They are gone! How can this even be happening? Anyway, give it a try!
Posted by iHerb Customer on Jan 09, 2013 | Verified Purchase
This oil is super on your face or in your hair. It heals and is perfect for my dry skin during the winter.
Posted by iHerb Customer on Jul 08, 2014 | Verified Purchase
Unas gotas en la cara la deja confortable, con cierta sensación tensora aunque no tanto como el argán de acure. En el pelo hay que tener cuidado, pocas gotas que es muy concentrado y puede engrasar. Huele refrescante. En las manos es ideal, absorción rápida.
Magic oil
Posted by iHerb Customer on Feb 19, 2015 | Verified Purchase
I have been using this oil to moisturise my face and hair for 10 days, I can notice a huge difference! I have a very dry skin with eczema and acne from time to time but this oil does a perfect job. My skin looks much better without using any other products, it does not look too greasy or whatever. I am impressed. It is also great for my long hair, ends tend to be damaged over time. I use it as a mask as well as daily leave-in. Of course you may want to use a few drops only, but it penetrates the hair without making them oily. Once on your face or hair you do not notice the herbal smell at all. It is the best oil I have ever tried, I highly recommmend it. Knowing that it is organic, cruelty free, etc, give it a try, you will not be disappointed.
1-5 of 5 total


text:
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - To get ready for the spring season, the 11 northeast Florida Home Depot stores are adding hundreds of temporary employees.
Nationally, the big-box retailer hopes to fill 80,000 positions to help with its busiest season. Locally, the chain is expecting to add 585 people to work from now through the end of March.
Most of the positions will be for the store's garden center.
Prospective employees have to be 18, though a high school degree is not required.
"Anyone that has related experience as far as retail and home improvement (is) welcome," said assistant manager Daniel Nicholson Jr. "Of course, anyone that is transitioning out of military can apply."
While the positions being filled or temporary, Nicholson says it's common for temporary position turns into a permanent one.
"It's not where we use you for the season and lay you off it's not, that it's a doorway a step to get into the door at Home Depot," Nicholson said.
The pay ranges by position and between stores, but Home Depot does offer medical and dental benefits to part-time employees.
For those returning military and veterans who are interested in a position, Home Depot launched a special section on its website to help match your military skills with positions within the company.
Copyright 2013 by News4Jax.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


text:
We like Barcelona design store Lâappartement for its eclecticâyet cohesiveâselection of art and design products. Their main objective is to promote the work of young innovative designers, making everything in the store fresh and exciting. The aesthetic is clean, contemporary, colorful and decorative. Each month Lâappartement showcases a young designerâs work. This month features Japanese designer Hiroshi Tsunoda, a Barcelona resident, who's known for his simple, clever product designâparticularly for the his distinctive light designs in the PH Collection. Running through 15 July 2006, there are only a few days left to catch Hiroshiâs show, so hurry along now! Next up itâs 5.5 Designers with their Réanim project. They call it the "medicine of objects," resuscitating discarded products to give them a second life. Sounds like theyâve got their fingers on the pulse.
Calle Enric Granados 44
08008 Barcelona
tel. +34 934522904


text: Aftera couple of months here, I've finally gotten around to starting a sketchbook. I work mostly from life and my imagination and then develop ideas later on for finshed work or production art. Black and white is pencil color stuff is oils done in life drawing sessions. Mostly it is a way to keep my skills from getting too rusty.


text:
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. - Gunfire was audible Monday as the Michigan Chapter of the National Action Network held a prayer vigil outside the Action Impact gun range in Southfield.
Gun owners were sharpening their marksmanship inside the range. Many opposed to this kind of recreation and preparation for self defense say the Newtown massacre was a watershed moment.
"What did this mother need with an AR-15? Was she going to war for somebody?" said Rev. Charles Williams.
Williams and other activists are demanding tougher gun control laws. However, the man who runs Action Impact says it's a nice sentiment but it's not likely to change much of anything.
"Evil will always exist. Why are we passive about it?" said Action Impact owner Billy Kucyk.
Several Detroit pastors say the city knows all too well about gun violence and what it does to families. They want government action taken to ban such weapons.
"Congress needs to act. The President has shown his willingness to act ... but also Gov. Snyder needs to act. Bottom line is today he has gun laws on his desk," said Williams.
Read: Snyder giving Mich.'s expanded open carry bill 'extra consideration'
Gun proponents say while they look menacing the guns are little different from deer rifles and all the new gun laws in the world would not have prevent Friday's attack.
"When we respond emotionally we're liable to make mistakes. Let's really examine the issue, what the best way is to really solve this rather than putting a band aid on a horrible infection," said Kucyk.
The pastors say they are hopping on a bus for Washington on Wednesday. They are planning to lobby for tougher gun laws -- such as reinstating the assault weapons ban --- at the nation's capital.
Kucyk said the ban did not work last time and it is not likely to work if it is passed again.
Meanwhile, the Southfield gun range was busy on Monday. It was jam-packed with shooters over the weekend, too. The debate is far from finished.
Copyright 2012 by ClickOnDetroit.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


text:
Topic: INTRO:
My son age 45, with 2 children and a lovelywife, has been diagnosed with CC. He has a great attitude and is otherwise healthy. I don't know what to expect and the information that I'm getting on the Internet is pessimistic. The information that I"m getting from my daughter-in-law is vague.
I came out to the West Coast (where he lives) to consult with an oncologist. I was with them when they received the diagnosis which originally was "pancreatic cancer". The next step was to get him to the renowned MDAnderson Cancer Ctr. in Houston, Texas where (today) the new diagnosis is Cholangio Carcinoma. They are starting him on a round of chemo.
What will happen next?


text:
Today a new ten year strategic plan for Vermont's wood furniture (and other wood products) industry was unveiled by the Vermont Wood Products Marketing Council. The 2020 Vision For The Vermont Wood Products Industry provides a roadmap for our $1.8 Billion wood products industry in VT to capitalize on the state's reputation as the Fine Furniture Capital of America.
At Vermont Woods Studios Furniture we hope to be a major player in the industry's growth. We believe that American home owners are increasingly looking for sustainabilty, quality and authenticity in their home furnishings. That puts Vermont in an excellent marketing position as our furniture makers have consistently focused on those attributes for 200 years, producing a superior, high quality product at affordable prices.
Conversely, the vast majority of American furniture has been outsourced to Asia for the past 30-40 years in favor of cheap production. However as customers grow ever more weary of low-quality, imported furniture that's a health risk to their families, Vermont's tradition of quality workmanship and natural, sustainable materials will be important in rejuvenating the American furniture industry. And our woodworking community's ethic of collaboration rather than competition will be instrumental in leading the path forward.
We extend our thanks to the Vermont Wood Manufacturer's Association for making this report possible and look forward to working with our friends throughout the industry to get it implemented.
Already following our Blog? For more info sign up for our e-newsletter
This blog is written by your friends at Vermont Woods Studios. Check out our Vermont made furniture and home decor online and visit our showroom and art gallery at Stonehurst, the newly restored 1800s farmhouse nestled in the foothills of the Green Mountains.


text:
Michigan-Notre Dame Tentatively Back On
[Eric Upchurch]
It's not quite official, but the head coaches of both ends of the rivalry more or less announced today that Michigan-Notre Dame will resume in the near future. Brian Kelly was more specific than Harbaugh:
"We're going to make that happen," the seventh-year Notre Dame head football coach said Thursday, relaxing in his office. "We've got some work to do, but we're going to make it happen.
"It's something (ND athletic director) Jack Swarbrick and I want to do, and we're going to get that game back together. We've got some challenges, but I think we can pull it off."
How soon?
"We want to do it as soon as we can," Kelly said. "We've got Michigan State home-and-home the next two years (2016-17), and then we're hoping to. We want to get in on the schedule as quickly as possible after that."
For his part, Harbaugh said they'd been working on resuming the series for "7, 8, 9 months" and that there were Ts to cross and Is to dot. Hoping those details include a rivalry trophy portraying Dave Brandon hunched over a computer, typing furiously.
Michigan currently has home games against Arkansas and SMU lined up for 2018 and an open date September 8th. It's an MSU/OSU away year and they should get the next home game in the series. ND currently has two openings in 2018, with Ball State scheduled for September 8th. They already have a couple of highly attractive home games in Stanford and FSU; their 2019 home schedule is currently pretty weak, with USC and not much else of interest. Resuming the series with a Michigan home game in 2018 appears to make sense for everybody.
The main problem: adding a game at ND in 2019 would lock Michigan into just five home games, which I assume is unacceptable. If the Arkansas return game gets moved—or that series gets flat-out canceled—they can get up to six. That would still be the fewest home games Michigan Stadium has seen since the move to 12 games. The ever-increasing blizzard of TV money makes it more likely Michigan can weather that financially, but it's a problem. One that the two sides appear to be working through.
Report: Michigan Adds Army To 2019 Schedule
Photo: Danny Wild/USA Today
FBSchedules.com reported this afternoon that Michigan will face Army in the 2019 home opener:
Michigan will host Army at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor on Sept. 7, 2019, according to a copy of the game contract obtained from the Army Athletic Association under a Freedom of Information Act request.
The Wolverines will pay the Black Knights a $1.5 million guarantee for the game, which will be the 10th overall meeting between the two schools. Army leads the series 5-4 and has won the last four meetings, the last coming in 1962.
While Army does hold a 5-4 edge in the series, it's Michigan that has won the last four. All nine games took place between 1945 and 1962, when Army was still a football power.
This is probably Michigan's replacement for what would usually be a MAC game. M opens the 2019 season at Arkansas, the latter half of a home-and-home series, and hasn't yet filled the other open non-conference spot. Starting in 2016, the Big Ten moves to a nine-game conference schedule, which leaves room for three non-conference games.
No Night Game This Year
none of the lights none of the lights [Bryan Fuller]
Buried in a release about Michigan playing Minnesota at night is this:
With primetime selections through the networks and Big Ten Conference office now complete, Michigan will not host a night game this season at Michigan Stadium. Kickoff times for the remainder of the 2015 season will be announced in coordination with those partners.
Michigan's choices there were OSU (in November), Michigan State, or a middling opponent like Oregon State, BYU, or Northwestern. None of those are particularly appealing, though I thought a BYU at night might have been fun.
Athletic Director Time: Stakes
Previously: overview.
feeling that a ticket you have is a precious thing is good
More games should mean things
This is something that Brandon was moving towards getting right, save for the horrible contract that saw him eat an extra Notre Dame home game at the (hopefully temporary) end of that series. And that contract might not have been his doing.
This year's football schedule has one tomato can on it, UNLV, and three actual teams: BYU, Oregon State, and Utah. BYU and Oregon State are one-off home games. They're more expensive, but we've finally reached the point where spending an extra few hundred thousand dollars on an opponent like that has a clear ROI in ticket sales. (That is the reason Brandon was getting that right.) One of the smartest things he said during his tenure was about this.
Unfortunately, I have been able to google it to get the exact quote, but it was along the lines of "we have to get out of the business of scheduling games that feel like exhibitions to fans." He largely put his money where his mouth was in that department. Or tried to, anyway. It still galls that Michigan State landed a home and home with Alabama and Michigan was forced to play a "neutral" site matchup in Dallas against them.
But Brandon was right: repeated tomato can poundings make the fan look at his ticket and feel like a sap. The Product™ boils down to that: you look at the ticket that has a section and seat and opponent on it and you feel a certain way. For years many of these tickets have made you feel like it's another way to pay for the Ohio State game. That is going to remain true, but being less explicit about it is a first step on the road towards making fans feel like part of the enterprise instead of marks.
There's not much flexibility when it comes to college football. Michigan's going to play in their division and they've got three games a year (Indiana, Rutgers, Maryland) that aren't going to feel like much no matter what happens. They've been filling out the nonconference schedule with more respectable opponents; further additions have to happen a decade or more out. The wider landscape of college football will help here: double the number of teams in the playoff means double the number of late-season games that can impact the championship picture.
Michigan's other two revenue sports could use some help. This year's hockey schedule was a textbook example of what not to do: a weird one-off at Ferris State before even the exhibition games, home games piled into the fall when most fans are busy with football, an almost two-month absence from Yost in January and February punctuated by a fiasco of an outdoor game taken in by fewer fans than would have been at a home game.
Meanwhile, basketball plays a lot of nonconference games against the Coppin States of the world. It was seven last year (they just happened to lose two): Hillsdale, Bucknell, Detroit, Nicholls State, NJIT, EMU, and Coppin State. I don't see a great solution there given the way college basketball works: you're going to have a preseason tournament, you're going to have a game just before Christmas no one wants to play, there's not enough room to do anything interesting.
The conference, though… the conference could use some tweaking. Here are a couple of concrete plans to make basketball and hockey games have more wow factor on the ticket.
Basketball: making 14 an asset
Wisconsin ran away with the Big Ten title this year. Their last seven games included matchups against 9-9 Illinois, 4-14 Penn State, and two against 6-12 Minnesota. What if their stretch run was nothing but the other three games—Maryland, Michigan State, Ohio State—and so was everyone else's? And what if you could never point to anyone's schedule and say that's why team X won?
This is possible, even in a 14-team conference if you're willing to rethink a conference schedule. You can have a true, fair, thrilling championship in 19 conference games:
- FIRST 13: round-robin amongst all teams
- LAST 6: split the league into top and bottom halves, have second round-robin within.
Everyone in each half plays the same schedule. The last three weeks of the regular season are an all-out brawl for a banner that means something it might not in a world where getting the wrong teams twice could knock you down a peg.
The downsides are real but not insurmountable. You would not know the last six games of your schedule until a few days before. With home sites that's not a huge problem. There will be demand for those games. And teams right around the cutoff could find their path to a bid get harder as teams just above it draw a bunch of tough games and teams below it lose the opportunity to knock off a Wisconsin. That effect is probably marginal (on average it's turning three games into somewhat harder or easier ones).
If they tried this I bet they would never even think about going back once they saw, say, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Wisconsin, OSU, Indiana, and Illinois have a three-week war for a Big Ten title.
Hockey: a state championship
The FA Cup: the only time anyone has ever believed in Wigan
There's not a whole lot Hypothetical Michigan AD can do about the Big Ten or NCAA's playoff format. (It does sound like the national tournament is in line for some long-overdue changes.) But he can probably get the Michigan schools together to provide early-season matchups some additional oomph.
The formation of the Big Ten is something college hockey needed if they were ever going to expand past two western conferences, but it broke up a bunch of 40-year-old rivalries that mean something to college hockey fans. Instead of having every Michigan team save Tech in a single conference, now they're spread across three. The GLI has tried to compensate by inviting a Michigan team for the foreseeable future, but that doesn't do much for the three teams that aren't invited in any particular year.
Nor does it have that much selling power. The GLI is a nice event, but it's always been a little silly that Michigan has a banner for years they won it. It's two games. The trophy doesn't have a name. It's not, say, a 40-pound bronzed cast of Red Berenson's head.
What if the first half of the season had a different competition in it? Soccer does this to excellent effect. A state championship competition that features World Cup/Champions League style groups would be a reasonable time commitment and a way to inject stakes into otherwise fuzzy early-season matchups.
A problem: there are seven Michigan teams, not eight. We will fill in the eighth spot with a guest program. This could either rotate between reasonably local programs (ND, OSU, BGSU, Miami, even PSU) or be permanent.
Hypothetical groups:
|Michigan State
|Notre Dame
|Western Michigan
|Michigan Tech
|Northern Michigan
|Ferris State
Each team plays the others twice, whether that's home and home or not. The next year invert home/road and do it again; then switch the groups up. The only hard and fast rule is that Michigan and Michigan State are separate. The four teams in the bottom two rows are all WCHA members. They can either book an early-season conference series to count for the state championship or schedule bonus nonconference series, their choice.
After that's done, the top two in each group play for the Michigan Themed Hockey Trophy* at the Joe. (The other two also go to the Joe and play because everyone wants to know they've got X number of games booked.)
This is a commitment of eight games—six for teams currently in the WCHA. For teams in the Big Ten (20 conference games), Hockey East (22), or NCHC (24) that is doable. It does seriously restrict the flexibility of WCHA teams (28 games), but a lot of these games are the ones these schools would want to schedule anyway. For example, Ferris's nonconference schedule included two games against State, one against Michigan, and the GLI. Tech played Michigan and in the GLI. They would be signing up for another two or three games only. And the lack of flexibility is offset by the fact that they're locking in a Michigan or Michigan State series annually.
If you can pull this off then your early season, normally something without stakes other than the hope down the road your Pairwise ranking will be good, becomes three weekends in which you hope to qualify for a GLI that means you can print out shirts that say State Champs and kiss let's just say a 40-pound bronze cast of Red Berenson's head.
like this except with Red Berenson's head
Play for things. Give us stakes. A ticket that reads "Red Berenson's 40 Pound Head Tournament" is better than one that just says "Western Michigan."
*[Options: unearth the Ron Mason trophy that went kaput when the CCHA did, inaugurate a Red Berenson trophy for the former Michigan player and Detroit Red Wing, or go studiously neutral but somewhat silly by naming it after a guy who didn't play college hockey.
Gordie Howe played in the defunct minor-pro version of the USHL for a year, not the CHL, and he's Gordie Howe. So he's a good idea if you're going that route.]
Michigan's non-conference schedule not looking as robust as it once did
I might wait a bit to make that declaration.
Unverified Voracity Gets Rehab Profile
Basketball approaches. Save us, basketball.
Schlissel speaks. Mark Schlissel sat down with the Daily to talk about the future of the athletic department. Schlissel has mastered the executive's ability to talk without sending people running for the 72-point font, but there were some interesting bits in there. It seems like the timing here caught everyone off guard:
"I would imagine that we'll begin the process of organizing a search in the coming weeks," Schlissel said. "I can tell you with certainty I haven't talked to anybody at all — no matter what you read in the media — about whether they're interested in a permanent position here."
It seems like the decision-making process was winding towards that mid-November date when things got accelerated. Not sure I like the overtones of "begin the process of organizing a search in the coming weeks." That sounds like an extended timeline, and Michigan has some pressing priorities.
Schlissel flat out admitted that the names being floated in the media are people he's "never heard of before," which again shows his refreshing ability to say "I don't know" but I hope doesn't extend to the Michigan guys—at this point you'd hope he had a handle on the Long/Manuel/Bates group. He also said the usual bit about how they're not going to focus exclusively on Michigan guys.
In a second article, Schlissel cited Brandon's resignation as a reason he couldn't say much about exactly what went down but did offer this:
"One thing I will say is I expect everybody who works at this public university to treat the public with respect," Schlissel said. "That's a sort of condition of working at this university.
"Everybody should be respectful to the public we serve."
That's the general outline; I'll round up the AD chatter in a separate post.
A bit of a difference. Nebraska folk are looking at their schedule and that of various Big 12 teams and noticing that one is not like the other:
Let's pretend that Nebraska stayed in the Big 12 and West Virginia never received an invitation. Let's give NU the Mountaineers' 2014 home conference schedule. Ready?
Kansas State
I don't have enough exclamation points at my disposal for that list. I get pumped just thinking about it. That's a schedule from paradise, full of teams with speed and skill (OK, not so much Kansas). Or maybe it just seems that way based on Nebraska's rice-cake diet this fall. Ready? Are you sure?
I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Look at those two schedules. Look at 'em! The latter looks like an old catcher's mitt. It must be a sick joke, right?
This really hits home when you look at the basketball schedules: single-plays everywhere, even less balance than previously. Bleah. If the league was as responsive to legit criticisms as individual schools were, Delany would get run out of town on the same rail Brandon's on. But he's got that insulation.
Chaos in Bloomington. The last time things got so wild in central Indiana, Lucy left the barn door open and one of the cows got stuck in a police car. In the immediate aftermath of a freshman hitting one of his own teammates with a car, while intoxicated, Troy Williams and Stanford Robinson have been hit with four-game drug suspensions. That brings the number of IU players involved in drug-and-alcohol-related incidents up to 6.
And guess which newspaper just hired the human molotov cocktail that is Gregg Doyel?
Firing Crean for his team's fifth alcohol-related incident in a year could be expensive.He has a $12 million buyout this year unless he's fired "for cause." Would nearly 40 percent of his roster -- five of 13 scholarship players -- being cited for alcohol-related offenses count as "for cause"? A judge might have to decide, if it gets that far. But if a fifth IU player is cited, then that's where it should go. Because the coach overseeing that program, I don't care how much I like the guy, would have to go.
Yep. The Indy Star. Dan Dakich, meanwhile, went off on his radio show:
"Gregg Doyel was dead on. Indiana players, you're getting ready to get your coach fired... I love Indiana basketball down to my core. It's who I am. But not this crap...
"When did you fans become so soft, become so accepting of mediocrity, promotion and crap?"
Sounds kind of like a blogger there.
It's funny because we suck. If we did not suck it would be somewhat less funny.
Something like injury information. Gardner is not right and it's obvious; he limped around to finish the Penn State game and is still hobbled:
After a play broke down in the second half against Indiana, Michigan's fifth-year senior quarterback tucked the ball near the 50-yard line and took off.
His mind said go, but his sore ankle wouldn't let him. He ended up rushing for a first down, but it was obvious things have changed.
"(A year ago) I probably would've scored," Gardner smiled Monday. "But I got the first down, that's what the team needed, it kept the chains moving."
Let's just put that on the pile then. Soon we will ski down Mount Devin Gardner Problems.
Please? The Hoover Street Rag points out that fixing the current schedule imbalance in the Big Ten East is not a difficult thing as long as 1) MSU is also amenable to that change and 2) IU doesn't care:
Since Indiana is in the East, both Michigan and Michigan State play them every season. Fortutiously, Indiana played MSU at home and Michigan on the road this year. Therefore, all you have to do is flip the Indiana game from a home game to an away game and flip MSU from an away game to a home game. Everyone still ends up with the same number of home and away games, and the bottleneck is cleared.
Current 2016 Schedule
UM at MSU, at OSU, vs IU
MSU vs UM, vs OSU, at IU
OSU at MSU, vs UM, vs IU
IU vs MSU, at UM, at OSU
Proposed 2016 Schedule
UM vs MSU, at OSU, at IU
MSU at UM, vs OSU, vs IU
OSU at MSU, vs UM, vs IU
IU at MSU, vs UM, at OSU
Seems like all three programs in the MSU/OSU/M troika would prefer to have one at home and one on the road for balance and ticket sales reasons.
Alert! Alarm! The word from Boston:
If I ran Boston College, I'd be worried about losing AD Brad Bates to Michigan
— Dan Shaughnessy (@Dan_Shaughnessy) November 4, 2014
Never! Mind! The word from Boston:
This is a big bowl of awkward.
Tommy Amaker is set to coach No. 12 seed Harvard against No. 5 seed Cincinnati in the first round of the NCAA Tournament Thursday, and when the Crimson lose their next game, Amaker is gone. He's Jacoby Ellsbury gone. Harvard's loss will be Boston College's gain.
BC hired Ohio coach Jim Christian instead. On the bright side for Shaughnessy, Jacoby Ellsbury was never found again.
Number one. Would you like a lot of quotes about Jim Hackett? Angelique has them for you:
"Number one, he's nice," Gilmour said. "Number two, thoughtful. Number three, clearly deep. … He is a thoughtful and organized person. And he may be the interim (athletic director) but he won't be a caretaker. He will be moving the athletic department ahead."
The Schiano rehabilitation project begins now. A long Pete Thamel piece on Peter Kings site finds Greg Schiano looking up at nothing in particular while exposing his teeth for reasons he doesn't understand.
I know that feeling of panic whenever someone points a camera at you and says "look like a human being," bro.
Anyway, Schiano makes breakfast, he is enamored with Urban Meyer's juice, he sings songs about chores to Red Hot Chili Peppers songs, he won't be an enormous Brandon to NFL scouts anymore, etc. Schiano's image was run through the woodchipper over his two years in Tampa and he's trying to be… well… that guy above instead of the guy who has his players go after people on a victory formation play.
(Also, what is that diagram? Is he demonstrating Notre Dame's last touchdown in 2011? WHAT DOES IT MEAN?)
Etc.: I was on Drew and Marc Friday talking about what happened and what's next. Hackett intro. Niyo on Hoke chatter. The Brandon timeline. Slate on the ouster. Drake Johnson breakdown.
2015 GA SG Jaylen Brown, the #1 kid nationally, will take a visit to Michigan. Ricky Doyle is going to be critical. Good think he doesn't look like a freshman physically.
Stuffing the Passer is now an animated comic strip, because of course it is.


text:
The Tribune is providing down-the-stretch tips and reminders to help you complete the right forms, apply for all the deductions and credits you can, and get your tax filings in on time by April 15.
Countdown Tip No. 5: Tips for the self-employed.
The Tribune is providing down-the-stretch tips and reminders to help you complete the right forms, apply for all the deductions and credits you can, and get your tax filings in on time by April 15.
Countdown Tip No. 5: Tips for the self-employed.
Being your own boss can be liberating and lucrative, but it can also be confusing when it comes to taxes.
If you own a business or are an independent contractor, you'll probably have to pay self-employment tax on top of your income tax. The self-employment tax covers Social Security and Medicare taxes, items that an employer would normally withhold from your paycheck if you worked for a company. Income tax is due if your net earnings from self-employment totaled $400 or more in 2012, so the self-employment tax applies to part-time workers, too.
Use Schedule SE to pay the self-employment tax. Use Schedule C to report income as a sole proprietor.
You also may have to pay estimated taxes the tax on income such as interest, rents or royalties, which can be paid in quarterly chunks. You can use Form 1040-ES to figure out your estimated tax.
As a self-employed person, don't forget that you can deduct some of the costs associated with running your company, such as mileage, product freight costs, start-up costs and machinery.
You may also qualify for a health insurance deduction to cover medical, dental or long-term care insurance premiums for yourself, spouse and dependents, including children under age 27, even if they are no longer a dependent.
More information about the self-employment tax, permitted business deductions and estimated taxes is available online at IRS.gov.
Coming up tomorrow: Watch out for fees when paying taxes by credit card.
Twitter: @jnpearce
Countdown to April 15 last-minute tips
Haven't filed your taxes yet? Check out The Tribune's Countdown to Tax Day series with information that can help as the deadline approaches:
April 4 • Where to get free help
April 5 • How to avoid tax scams
April 6 • The joys of filing electronically
Sunday • What's the Earned Income Tax Credit?
Tuesday • Don't miss out on the Child and Dependent Care Credit
Today • Understand your taxes if you're self-employed
Thursday • Watch out for fees when paying taxes by credit card
Friday • Reduce your taxes by saving for retirement
Saturday • Use the Taxpayer Advocate when tackling the IRS
April 14 • Don't ignore your taxes; file an extension to get more time


text:
beatit 57s-62s
- Size: 640px
- Quality: High
- Size: 7.80 MB 0 bytes
This Gif entitled beatit 57s-62s was created from the youtube video 3 years ago. It uses 18 frames per second and is displayed at 640px resolution. This animated image plays for 5 seconds, was built with high quality and an estimated weight of 7.80 MB for download. This animation was originally created from the Beat It PMV video from 00:57 to 01:02.
Flag This GifSend


text:
Hamstring keeps Nakajima out vs. Giants
The A's ventured across the Bay Bridge for the first game of the series on Thursday, and it was during that time that Nakajima was scheduled to be seen by the team's doctors to determine the next course of action.
Doctors confirmed the strain but offered no indication of how much time he'll miss, making a DL stint all the more likely.
Uncertainty not only surrounds Nakajima's health, but his ability to compete in the big leagues. The Japanese shortstop struggled all spring, both on defense and at the plate, and his slow progression has cleared the way for Jed Lowrie to take over everyday shortstop duties.
The A's aren't yet ready to say as much, but there's no denying that his injury only adds to an already difficult adjustment period. For now, though, they're not ruling him out of playing in the first week of regular-season games.
"It's tough to say, it is," A's manager Bob Melvin said. "If he misses three games here and a couple back there, it would be difficult to get back into the swing of things, but I'm not really sure yet."
Jane Lee is a reporter for MLB.com. Read her blog, Major Lee-ague, and follow her on Twitter @JaneMLB. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


text:
Good, bad, or indifferent I have been primarily a TNA fan for the last 2 years. I kept myself up on WWE through readings and YouTube clips but I have not watched more than 10 minutes of WWE programming since this passing Monday: the go-home show for WrestleMania. Even though I may not be as invested as many of you are in the current WWE product -- here it goes anyway.
A TNA Fan's Excitement
Since microphones are scarce in the blog-world, we can just call that a type-bomb rather than a pipe-bomb
I made the bold statement in the title because of one simple reason: the story line is too good, too smart, and too ballsy for TNA. We really need to consider everything that would be put into this story line if it is a work. It would really be quite remarkable. Even if TNA came
Over the last three years, many more times than not, it was a chore to sit down for a full episode of Impact. With this being said, it is very understandable that many people are still discouraged from watching and are still turned off from the product as a whole. However, since going live, TNA has really stepped their game up. There is no better time to at least casually follow the product. Since
Updated 06-29-2012 at 03:17 PM by YOUcanCALLmeCRACK
Nation of Procrastination: The Blog
These are the things I think about when I should be working...
So Russo is out and TNA's creative is semi-shaken up. I think this would be a great time to try something different in the structure of the creative department. I am not talking about creative direction but who does what and stuff like that.
If I had any say, this
With the Holiday season coming up, it is great to look at those who may not have it as good as you and reflect (even if they are multi-multi-millionaires)
Disclaimer: I have not been watching the WWE product lately but I have been reading about it to stay current. However, I feel that my opinions can still be made without sitting through every second of Raw, Smackdown, NXT(?), and
ROH-bots, TNA-marks, WWE-fan-boys. Regardless of how you feel about WWE, CM Punk's promo was the best ones done in WWE since Paul Heyman's on Vince McMahon a few years ago.
(For your viewing pleasure)
Obviously, WWE was behind Punk's promo 100% because we all know that Vince would never let that promo go on for that long.
To Whom This May Concern:
TNA...Impact Wrestling...whatever you call yourselves these days - it's time. It is time to make a move. Stop sitting back and waiting for the fans and ratings to come. It's time to make a decision to make yourself competitive in the main-stream wrestling picture. You can be the one that brings wrestling back from it's recession of popularity and creative mediocrity.
Let me first off say - if you agreed with my last blog or not, thank you for your click and for the time you took out to make a response. I am writing this blog as a response of sorts to many of your comments. It is just much easier trying to defend myself here than in the trenches of the comment section.
According to Kurt Angle and Hulk Hogan, TNA Entertainment is now running Impact
Updated 05-14-2011 at 05:24 PM by Frank
I may not know much of how the wrestling business works behind the scenes, but neither do many of you. I am pretty sure we do not have any former-wrestlers of a large promotion on this site (sorry to say, Ryan Clark). I do however, know a thing or two about business in general. What TNA is doing is exactly what they should be doing at exactly the right time, everyone just needs to see it from a business
I am not referring to the video game.
The night before the first ever draft on Raw back in 2002, I attended the last live show in Rutherford, NJ that used the merged roster. It was a sad sight to see The Dudleys, after a victory, get on the mic and say "this maybe the last time you see us tagging together." As we all know now that wasn't the case thanks to TNA. But back in
© 2011 eWrestlingNews, All Rights Reserved.


text:
19 fun car road trip activities
Turn an ordinary drive into a world of fun adventures and possibilities. more
As this year's flu season prepares to kick in, medical specialists and Australian influenza watchers are sure about only one thing – flu will be around and for certain people it will pose a potentially serious risk.
While there have been less scare reports on flu epidemics recently, Dr Alan Hampson, chairman of the Influenza Specialist Group, says Australia should still be prepared for outbreaks. In fact, he adds, the levels of diagnosed cases of flu in Australia from November last year have been running at about five times higher than seen over the past decade.
"We really don't know what the implications are other than it appears that we are starting off the usual flu season – typically June or July through to September – with more virus circulating in the community," Dr Hampson says.
Dr Hampson says parents should certainly consider vaccinating their kids against flu because of its potentially serious impact on children. "My own grandchildren normally receive a flu shot each year," he says.
Professor Robert Booy, clinical director of the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance at Westmead Children's Hospital in Sydney, was reported in the media recently warning that children might die this winter unless they were vaccinated against seasonal flu.
While many of us think of flu as like a really debilitating cold, it sends nearly 1500 Australian children to hospital every year and is responsible for more hospitalisations of children under five than any other vaccine-preventable disease, according to the Influenza Specialist Group.
Also it's believed that children are much more likely to catch the flu than adults and are major contributors to its spread throughout the community. International research overseas has found that immunising young children can slow down the spread of the disease in families and, hence, the wider community.
There are still many medical professionals who believe that parents should only immunise their children if there's an underlying health problem such as congenital heart disease, respiratory problems (including severe asthma), immunological problems, diabetes and any of the other predisposing conditions. The Australian Immunisation Handbook lists conditions which could warrant a flu jab.
Dr Hampson also suggests that people in close contact with babies who are too young to be immunised (i.e. under six months) be vaccinated, as well as pregnant women. "This not only protects them, as a vulnerable group, but does pass on some immunity to the newborn," he says.
It's understandable that many parents have been scared off vaccinating their kids after the flu vaccine was linked to a number of fevers and febrile convulsions last year. While there is a predicted reaction rate of about 1 in 1000, last year that increased 10-fold, and the vaccine responsible – which was one of a couple used in children – was withdrawn.
"This sort of occurrence of many severe reactions has not been seen previously regardless of many millions of doses administered to children, particularly in the USA, over many years," Dr Hampson says. "It was restricted to a single vaccine which our local authority has not licensed for use in young children this year.
"I realise that it is hard to restore confidence after an event like this but I don't believe that it should prevent parents who really wish to protect their children from having them vaccinated."
For more information on vaccinating kids against flu this year talk to your doctor or paediatrician.
Last revised: Wednesday, 11 May 2011
This article contains general information only and is not intended to replace advice from a qualified health professional.


text:
As seen in our Would You Wear It gallery, polka dots always have a sweet, retro feel — and combined with swingy skirts and bare necklines, they are the perfect way to keep wearing dresses into fall. We love Eva Longoria's one-of-a-kind Nanette Lepore dress (left), but since we can't buy that one, here are some other versions of the trend to try:
For a more work-appropriate version of Eva's dress, check out these shirtdresses from Nanette Lepore, $320, and Arden B, $128.
If you like a little more support, try a halter version from J. Crew, $250, or XOXO, $94.
To get the look for a steal, try Forever 21, $28.
And the look works on all body types. For plus sizes, try this Donna Ricco halter dress, $148.
Click here to see other Trends Worth Trying.
Photo: Baxter/ABACA


text:
Join our newsletter for new products, special offers, and more!
Enter email address
Sell your stuff or turn those old games into new!
Don't see what you're looking for? Create a Want List!
Partner with the Knight!
One day, cards began to fall from the sky and were picked up by kids all over the world. The cards featured different characters, different environments, and different powers. Kids created a popular battle game not knowing that these cards actually corresponded to an alternate world called Vestroia. Kids from all over the world played with the cards, yet 6 kids stood out: Dan, Marucho, Runo, Shun, Julie and Alice. They named the monsters Bakugans and their elite team the Bakugan Battle Brawlers.Vestroia is a vast dimension comprised of 6 attribute worlds: Fire, Earth, Light, Darkness, Water and Wind. At the very centre of this universe there are two opposing energy cores; THE INFINITY CORE, the source of all positive energy and THE SILENT CORE, the source of all negative energy. Throughout history, these two opposing forces had maintained the balance of equilibrium in Vestroia.However, there was one rogue Bakugan who lusted for control, and schemed to seize all of the power for himself. His name was Naga and his mission was to penetrate the silent core and seize its power. Meanwhile, back on Earth a scientist named Michael had been working on a dimension transportation device. During testing of the machine, an explosion sucked him in and led him to Vestroia where he discovered the two energy cores. While trying to return to earth, he was pulled in by the evil energy of the Silent Core and became the villain known as Hal G. While in Vestroia, Hal G encountered the Bakugan Naga, and the two made a deal - Hal G would give Naga the human world in exchange for his control over Vestroia!Naga eventually succeeded in his goal of reaching the silent core and began to absorb its negative energy. However, the negative energy proved too much for Naga to handle. The negative energy exploded and the Infinity Core fell to earth. Vestroia erupted in pandemonium; the negative power overwhelming the minds and wills of the Bakugan who live there. As Vestroia begun to collapse, the human world is also affected. The Infinity Core and the Silent Core are interfering with one another and starting to run wild. Now it is up to Dan and the other Battle Brawlers to find the Infinity Core and reunite it with the Silent Core to restore balance. What these young warriors initially thought was just a game has become a race to restore peace throughout the universe!