text:
|Publication number
|Publication type
|Application number
|Publication date
|4 Sep 2001
|Filing date
|12 Oct 1999
|Priority date
|12 Oct 1999
|Fee status
|Also published as
|Publication number
|Bruno Hans Haider
|Original Assignee
|General Electric Company
|Export Citation
|BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan
|Patent Citations (7), Referenced by (64), Classifications (15), Legal Events (4)
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet
This invention generally relates to ultrasound imaging systems and, more particularly, to methods and apparatus for increasing the acoustic frame rate of ultrasound images.
An ideal ultrasound imaging system will maintain its imaging resolution at an optimum value throughout the area of interest. One method for accomplishing this is often referred to as beamformation with the complete data set or N2 reconstruction. With this method, the data acquisition sequence proceeds as follows: transmit with transducer element 1, receive with transducer elements 1 through N; transmit with transducer element 2, receive with transducer elements 1 through N; and so forth.
Since this approach requires N2 transmit/receive operations, it is clearly not feasible for clinical imaging due to the data acquisition time requirements. However, it does permit a beamformation process in which each individual pixel of the image has its own specific set of beamformation parameters. By this method, one can achieve dynamic focusing on transmit beamformation as well as on receive, so that N2 reconstruction is often considered the target or point of comparison by which clinically feasible approaches are measured. Thus, a data acquisition method that approaches the N2 method while minimizing frame rate impact would be desirable.
A conventional ultrasound image is composed of multiple image scan lines. A single scan line (or small localized group of scan lines) is acquired by transmitting focused ultrasound energy at a point in the region of interest, and then receiving the reflected energy over time. The focused transmit energy is referred to as a transmit beam. During the time after transmit, one or more receive beamformers coherently sum the energy received by each channel, with dynamically changing phase rotation or delays, to produce peak sensitivity along the desired scan lines at ranges proportional to the elapsed time. The resulting focused sensitivity pattern is referred to as a receive beam. Scan line resolution is a result of the directivity of the associated transmit and receive beam pair.
Output signals of the beamformer channels are coherently summed to form a respective pixel intensity value for each sample volume in the object region or volume of interest. These pixel intensity values are log-compressed, scan-converted and then displayed as an image of the anatomy being scanned.
The frame rate of a medical ultrasound imaging system is determined by the number of transmit events necessary per frame. In conventional ultrasound imaging systems a transmit event is a focused beam transmitted in a particular direction or at a particular focal position. Frame rate in medical ultrasound imaging is a valuable resource. With increased frame rate, larger regions (as in color flow or three-dimensional imaging) or faster objects (e.g., the heart) can be imaged. In addition, image enhancement methods such as video integration (noise reduction) or compounding (speckle reduction) can also use up frame rate.
In conventional medical ultrasound imaging, a single pulse is transmitted in a particular direction and the reflected echoes are coherently summed to form a single line in the image frame. The amount of time necessary to form that scan line is determined largely by the round-trip transit time of the ultrasonic pulse. Furthermore, many scan lines are present in an image frame to densely sample the anatomical region of interest. Thus, the frame rate in conventional medical ultrasound imaging is determined by the sound propagation speed and the size of the region of interest.
High-frame-rate systems are desirable for present 2D (two-dimensional) imaging and necessary for future real-time 3D (three-dimensional) imaging. The frame rate can be improved by decreasing the number of transmit events per frame. This has been conventionally accomplished with a proportional reduction in the number of transmit elements used in each transmit event, resulting in poor signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).
Conventional ultrasound beamformers use dynamic focusing during reception of echoes. With this method, the beamformation process is optimized for each depth to achieve as good a beamshape (i.e., narrow beamwidth with low sidelobes) as possible. However, in most systems, a single fixed focus is used during transmit beamformation to try to maintain a good combined beamshape. In areas away from the transmit focus, the beamwidth of the resultant beam widens and the sidelobes increase.
In one known ultrasound imaging system, an improvement to the focal properties is achieved by using multiple transmits aimed at different focal locations or zones. The echoes from these focal zones are used to form subimages, which then are "stitched" together in the final image. While this method optimizes beam properties in most areas of the image and hence begins to approximate N2 performance, this is a major penalty of frame rate, i.e., the speed of sound is sufficiently slow to bring the frame rates down to as low as 5 frames/sec. In typical cases as many as eight transmit focal locations are used, which brings about an 8-fold reduction in frame rate. This penalty is quite severe with lower-frequency probes which are used in clinical situations requiring deep penetration.
A similar limitation associated with data acquisition time occurs even more seriously with color flow mapping, a Doppler-based technique in which typically 4 to 16 transmissions are made in a direction of interest to acquire enough data for clinical utility. One approach that has been implemented to try to overcome this limitation is that of transmitting a wider beam and placing multiple receive beams within the transmit envelope. The resultant beams are not necessarily of good quality; however, given the relatively modest needs of Doppler processing, the method works satisfactorily. The quality of such beams is not sufficient for B-mode imaging.
One attempt to acquire data at a faster rate and with sufficient image quality is disclosed in commonly assigned Thomenius et al. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/197,744, filed Nov. 23, 1998. That application discloses a method and apparatus for acquiring data in high-frame-rate high-resolution (i.e., low f-number) ultrasonic imaging. The technique involves transmitting multiple physically separated beams simultaneously and acquiring imaging data for more than one scan line during receive. Spatial apodization is used to influence the transmit beamformation and to form two controlled and focused spatially separate beams with a single firing of the transducer array elements and without use of additional timing electronics. This method is referred to as "dual beam steering by apodization". Dual beam steering by apodization involves transmission of a single time-delayed focused signal that is separated simultaneously into two distinct beams by imposing a cosinusoidal apodization of the transmitted signals from the elements of the transmitting phased array. The method can be extended to provide improved performance for larger scan angles and larger angular separations of the dual beams. Also the concept is extended to multiple (more than two) transmit beams with a single transmit firing. This concept can also be applied to two-dimensional arrays making it possible to work with a two-dimensional set of transmit beams.
In ultrasound multiline acquisition, multiple receive beams are acquired from a single transmit pulse. An artifact in this acquisition mode is the line warping which can occur when the transmit beam is focused in-between receive beams. Due to the changing transmit beamwidth, the effective receive beam location is pulled towards the center in the area of the transmit focus. Thus there is need for a technique capable of solving the line warping problem.
In dual line ultrasound beamforming, an ideal transmit beam should have two peak locations each following one of the receive beams. Dual beam steering by apodization creates such transmit beam; however, the resulting beam is optimized for only a single depth and significant line warping can occur away from that depth. The present invention improves the transmit beam shape in ultrasound multiline acquisition by numerically optimizing the transmit beam, i.e., the aperture function, such that no line warping occurs over the entire depth of field. The aperture function is optimized by numerically minimizing a Cost function which is dependent on the aperture function.
The invention is also directed to ultrasound imaging using a multiline acquisition technique in which an aperture function for transmitting a beam having multiple peaks has been numerically optimized.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an ultrasound imaging system in accordance with the preferred embodiments of the invention.
FIG. 2 is a graph of the transmit apodization profile for transmission of a pair of steered ultrasound beams from a 128-element phased array in accordance with one preferred embodiment of the invention.
FIG. 3 is a graph of the dual beam profile resulting from application of the transmit apodization weighting function shown in FIG. 2 (solid curve) and the single beam profile for transmission with the same f-number and without apodization.
FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration showing dual line beam acquisition and associated line warping. The bold lines indicate the effective receive beam location; the solid lines indicate the transmit beam and beamwidth; and the dotted lines indicate the desired receive beam location.
FIG. 5 is a schematic illustration showing the mismatch between the desired receive beam path and the effective transmit beam path achieved using dual beam steering by apodization without numerical optimization. The solid lines indicate the transmit center; the dashed lines indicate the desired receive beam path; and the dotted lines indicate the effective transmit beam path.
FIG. 6 is a schematic illustration showing the optimized transmit beam path achieved using dual beam steering by apodization with numerical optimization in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention. The solid lines indicate the transmit center; the dashed lines indicate the desired receive beam path and the effective transmit beam path.
FIG. 7 is a schematic illustration identical to FIG. 6 except that example geometry for numerical beam optimization is indicated.
FIG. 8 is a flowchart for a numerical optimization technique in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention.
FIG. 9 is a computer-generated image showing a simulated dual line transmit beam produced using cosinusoidal apodization without numerical optimization.
FIG. 10 is a computer-generated image showing a simulated dual line transmit beam produced using cosinusoidal apodization with numerical optimization in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention.
A typical conventional digital real-time ultrasonic imaging system is generally depicted in FIG. 1. This imaging system comprises a transducer array 10 including a plurality of separately driven transducer elements 12, each of which produces a burst of ultrasonic energy when energized by a pulsed waveform produced by a transmitter 14. The ultrasonic energy reflected back to transducer array 10 from the object under study is converted to an electrical signal by each receiving transducer element 12 and applied separately to a receiver 16 through a set of transmit/receive (T/R) switches 18. Transmitter 14 and receiver 16 are operated under control of a host computer 20 responsive to commands by a human operator. Host computer 20 comprises a central processing unit and associated memory. A complete scan is performed by acquiring a series of echoes in which transmitter 14 is gated ON momentarily to energize each transducer element 12, and the subsequent echo signals produced by each transducer element 12 are applied to receiver 16. A channel may begin reception while another channel is still transmitting. Receiver 16 combines the separate echo signals from each transducer element to produce a single echo signal which is used to produce a line in an image on a monitor of a display subsystem 22.
The base waveform transmitted by each transducer element is determined by a digital transmit sequence stored in a transmit sequence memory 26. Each transducer element 12 in the transmit aperture is pulsed by a pulse waveform produced by a respective bipolar pulser 24 in response to a respective transmit sequence supplied to that pulser from transmit sequence memory 26.
Under the direction of host computer 20, transmitter 14 drives transducer array 10 such that the ultrasonic energy is transmitted as a directed focused beam. To accomplish focusing, respective time delays are imparted to bipolar pulsers 24 by transmit focus delays 28, while respective pulse amplitudes are set by a transmit level control (apodization generation) 30, such as a high-voltage controller which sets the power supply voltage to each pulser. Host computer 20 determines the conditions under which the acoustic pulses will be transmitted. With this information, the transmit focus delays and transmit level control respectively determine the timing and amplitude of each of the transmit pulses to be generated by pulsers 24. Pulsers 24, in turn, send the transmit pulses to each of elements 12 of transducer array 10 via T/R (transmit/receive) switches 18. By appropriately adjusting the transmit focus time delays in a conventional manner, an ultrasonic beam can be directed and focused at a transmit focal position. In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the invention, the host computer is programmed to control transmitter 14 to use spatial apodization and time delays to form two controlled and focused, spatially separate beams with a single firing of the transducer array elements. The apodization and timing functions used to accomplish this are described in more detail below.
The echo signals produced by each burst of ultrasonic energy reflect from objects located at successive ranges along each ultrasonic beam. Due to differences in the propagation paths between a reflecting point and each transducer element, the echo signals are not detected simultaneously and their amplitudes are not equal. For each transmit, the echo signals from transducer elements 12 are fed to respective receive channels 32 of the receiver. Under the direction of host computer 20, the receiver tracks the direction of the transmitted beam. The receiver imparts the proper receive focus time delays 34 to the received echo signals. The receive focus time delays are computed in real-time using specialized hardware, or are read from a look-up table. The time-delayed receive signals are summed in receive beam summer 36 for each transmit firing to provide an echo signal which accurately indicates the total ultrasonic energy reflected from a point located at a particular range along the ultrasonic beam.
When dual beam steering by apodization is used, host computer 20 controls receiver 16 to track the directions of the two transmitted beams, sampling the echo signals at a succession of ranges along each beam. Receiver 16 imparts the proper time delay to each amplified echo signal and sums the amplified echo signals to provide a composite echo signal which accurately represents the total ultrasonic energy reflected from a point located at a particular range along a respective ultrasonic beam. Most conventional systems have the capability of receiving two beams simultaneously. This capability usually does not require two full sets of beamformer channels; in a digital beamformer, the separate beams are formed after several steps of common processing. Thus, receiver 16 will generate two receive beams in a conventional manner, the receive beams corresponding to the two ultrasound beams transmitted at different angles in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention. When conventional beamformers perform dual line receive beamformation, the transmit beam is usually widened to cover the area of the two receive beams. The present invention makes it possible to obtain dramatically improved beamformation (by having two separate transmit beams) without requiring any additional timing circuitry.
In the conventional system, the beamsummed receive signals may be bandpass filtered and supplied to a signal processor or detector 38. The bandpass filter (not shown) passes the desired signal components. Detector 38 converts the bandpass-filtered receive signals to display data. In the B-mode (gray-scale), the envelope of the signal comprises the display data, with some additional processing such as edge enhancement and logarithmic compression. Scan converter 40 receives the display data from detector 38 and converts the data into the desired image for display. In particular, scan converter 40 converts the acoustic image data from polar coordinate (R-θ) sector format or Cartesian coordinate linear format to appropriately scaled Cartesian coordinate display pixel data at the video rate. These scan-converted acoustic data are then processed by a video processor incorporated in display subsystem 22 and produced for display on the display system monitor, which images the time-varying amplitude of the envelope of the signal as a gray scale. A respective scan line is displayed for each spatially separate beam transmitted during a single transmit firing.
Dual beam steering (which is extendible to more than two beams) by apodization can be explained in mathematical terms. The response of a narrowband beamformer near its focus is given by the expression:
where f(u) is the transmit response as a function of u=sin(θ), θ is the angle with respect to the array normal, and k0=2π/λ is the wave number. As is well known, this expression produces a Fourier transform relation between the aperture function a(x) and the field response as a function of u. In a typical ultrasound application, the function a(x) is used for the purpose of apodization, i.e., to suppress the sidelobes that arise as a consequence of the Gibbs phenomenon.
The technique in accordance with the dual beam steering embodiment uses the a(x) component of Eq. (1) to modify the beam pattern in a manner that allows formation of two or more transmit beams from a single transmission. It is well known from interferometry that use of two point sources will create a sinusoidal field distribution. This is a direct consequence of the Fourier transform characteristic of the narrow band far-field (or focal) beamformation. The invention takes advantage of reciprocity in that if a sinusoidal weighting (apodization) is applied to the array elements, the field pattern will be that of two spatially separated δ-functions. That is, if a weighting
is applied, where d is the spatial frequency of the sinusoid, the resulting field pattern will be
Thus, merely by introducing the cosinusoidal weighting function, two beams are transmitted during a single firing of a multiple-element phased array. This is accomplished without generation of any timing signals or other means usually used for such purposes. Equations (1)-(3) assume infinite apertures. If the aperture is assumed to be finite with a length L, the field response becomes:
where the abbreviation "si" has been used for sinc (or sin(x)/x).
The a(x) function used to derive Eq. (4) is windowed by a rect{L} function, hence the sinc terms in the response. The rect-function can be defined as:
A more appropriate weighting function can be used to suppress sidelobes associated with the sinc function. FIG. 2 is an example of a sinusoidal weighting function with a Gaussian apodization superimposed on it for sidelobe suppression. The Gaussian function smoothes out the edges of the aperture response and is not necessary for implementation of the invention. FIG. 3 shows the resulting simulated beamshape, wherein the apodization causes two beams to be steered to the right at 19 and 25 degrees. Removal of the apodization while transmitting with the same f-number would cause a single beam to be formed, as depicted by the dash-dot line in FIG. 3.
There may be some loss in lateral and contrast resolution with the wideband signals due to the use of cosinusoidal apodization. This, in effect, limits the aperture size in the simulation. In practice, this loss can be compensated for by using a lower f-number in those instances where the dual beam performance is desired. Given a fairly large selection of possible apodization curves, the designer can optimize performance to the given situation.
There is a natural characteristic of sinusoidal or cosinusoidal functions that make them effective in the present invention. The cosine weighting can be expressed as:
One way to interpret the right-hand side of Eq. (6) is that these are the phase delays (usually expressed as complex exponentials) corresponding to the steering delays required to steer the beam in the two desired directions.
The cosinusoidal apodization as in Eq. (2) is a relatively simple expression and has limited range of validity in applications such as medical ultrasound. A more generally applicable expression is given in the aforementioned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/197,744 which is based on the assumption of a Gaussian transmit waveform and single scattering from the targets. An expression for the point spread function (PSF) is formed by summing the transmitted and received signals. By varying the apodization function used during the transmit operation, a beam with multiple peaks can be generated.
An artifact in the ultrasound multiline acquisition mode is the line warping which can occur when the transmit beam is focused in between receive beams. FIG. 4 shows an example where the transmit beam 42 in the center is straddled by two receive beams. The desired receive beam locations 44 are depicted as dotted lines. However, due to the changing transmit beamwidth the effective receive beam locations 46 are pulled towards the center in the area of the transmit focus.
The dual beam steering technique mitigates line warping by generating a transmit beam with lateral peaks at the location of the desired receive beam. This is achieved by appropriately selecting aperture weighting and delay functions. While the method eliminates the line warping shown in FIG. 4, it can create a different type of warping. The beam splitting is controlled at only a single depth. Before and after that depth, the beam follows some natural path which might be different from the desired receive beam path. FIG. 5 shows this situation for a linear array 10. The desired receive beam paths 44 (dashed lines) are perpendicular to the transducer array while the effective transmit beam paths 48 (dotted lines) are oblique to array 10. Because the effective transmit beam paths 48 intersect array 10 close to its center, such beam paths would be suitable for a sector image. For a rectilinear or trapezoidal image format, however, some line warping occurs.
In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, this problem of line warping is overcome by controlling the effective transmit beam path. The aperture weighting and delay functions are optimized such that the effective transmit beam path coincides with the desired receive beam path as shown by dashed lines 50 in FIG. 6; that is transmit delay and weighting functions are found which create a transmit beam that follows some desired path. This is achieved by using a numerical optimization method. A Cost function is defined which increases when the actual beamshape deviates from the desired one. Minimizing this Cost function yields the optimal delay and weighting functions. The approach is best illustrated through an example. FIG. 7 shows the geometry for numerical optimization using linear array 10. The desired transmit beam has two lateral intensity peaks 52 (dashed lines) which are offset by ξ0 to either side of the array center 54. The intensity peaks should run in parallel. For practical reasons it is not possible to generate such beam over an arbitrary depth range. Therefore, the optimization is limited to the range [ymin, ymax]. (In the end, this range becomes one of the trade-off parameters together with optimization accuracy, lateral separation, etc.).
The desired transmit beam has the following characteristics:
a)the beam is symmetric around the array center;
b)in the mainlobe region, at ξ0, the beam must have a certain pulse energy;
c)in the sidelobe region the pulse energy should be as low as possible; and
d)the lateral beam profile should have a peak at ξ0.
These beam characteristics are transformed into a Cost function for the aperture optimization. The Cost function is not unique, since a number of variations could yield similar results. What is shown here is one implementation which works well. To establish the Cost function, the beam profile is first needed. Since the beam profile is evaluated a large number of times during the optimization, a narrow-band approximation (phasor) method is applied. From the geometry in FIG. 7, the amplitude squared beam profile is derived as:
where a(x) is the complex aperture function and k is the wave number.
The characteristics a) through d) set forth above are interpreted in terms of the beam profile b(ξ, y):
a) Symmetry: the aperture delay and weighting functions are symmetric in x; that is, a(x)=a(−x);
b) in the mainlobe region the beam must have a certain pulse power W0; i.e.,
Equation (8) only makes sense in conjunction with a limitation on the transmitted power. Therefore, the transmit power is limited by
c) in the sidelobe region the pulse energy should be as low as possible:
d) the lateral beam profile should have a peak at ξ0, which implies that the derivative of the profile should be zero:
Since this criterion should be valid over the depth of field, it needs to be square integrated:
Equations (7)-(12) implicitly depend on the complex aperture function a(x) since the beam profile b(ξ, y) depends on a(x).
The Cost function can now be defined as
The coefficients A, B and C control the relative contributions of the components in Eq. (13) to the Cost function. The optimization result depends to some degree on the selection of these coefficients. However, an empirical coefficient selection should be adequate.
The optimal aperture function can be found by minimizing Cost[a(x)] subject to a(x)=a(−x) and ∫|a(x)|2dx≦WTX. The last constraint is necessary to ensure that the beam peak energy is maintained without arbitrarily increasing the transmit power.
The numerical optimization can be done with a number of algorithms. The example below uses a least squares method. Since the least squares algorithm only finds a local minimum, an appropriate starting point must be selected. The cosinusoidal apodization is used as that starting point.
First, the optimization problem is discretized such that all integrals become summations: a(x)→an, where n is the element number.
Next, the constrained optimization problem is transformed into an unconstrained one. The symmetry constraint (an=a−n) is enforced by optimizing only half of the aperture (n>0) and mirroring the other half. The transmit energy constraint is implemented by scaling the aperture by its own root-mean-square (rms) value; thus,
This normalization must be applied whenever the optimization calculates a new aperture function. With that, the optimization reduces to the unconstrained problem: minimize Cost(an) with n=[0,N/2] and the previous power normalization from Eq. (14).
The steps performed in accordance with a least squares optimization are depicted in FIG. 8. In accordance with this preferred embodiment, the cosinusoidal apodization is selected as the initial aperture function a(x) (step 60 in FIG. 8). The next step 62 determines the gradient of the Cost function for the present aperture function: g=grad[Cost(a)]. A scalar λ is then found at step 64 which minimizes the Cost function along the gradient, min Cost(a+λg), that optimal value being designated λopt. At step 66 the aperture function is updated, i.e., the old aperture function is stored as aold and a new aperture function is calculated as a:=a+λoptg. Then a new Cost function is calculated. At a decision step 68, a determination is made as to whether the absolute value of the difference between the new and old Cost functions is less than a first predetermined limit. Steps 62, 64, 66 and 68 are repeated until |ΔCost| is less than the first predetermined limit, in which event a determination is made at step 70 as to whether norm(λoptg) is less than a second predetermined limit. If not, then steps 62, 64, 66, 68 and 70 are repeated. If norm(λoptg) is less than the second predetermined limit, then the present aperture function is adopted as the optimized aperture. Referring to FIG. 1, host computer 20 then controls the transmit levels and transmit focus delays in accordance with the optimized aperture function for each transmit firing.
A number of similar optimization methods yield substantially the same result. See, e.g., the numerical optimization methods disclosed in "Optimization Toolbox; User's Guide," The Mathworks, Inc., December (1996) and G. R. Walsh, "Methods of Optimization," John Wiley & Sons (1975). Furthermore, any one of these methods comes in a number of variations. The present invention is not limited to use of any particular optimization method.
In accordance with the basic concept of the invention, the desired beam characteristics are converted into a Cost function and that Cost function is numerically optimized, e.g., minimized. The Cost function is established by calculating the beam pattern from the aperture function (amplitude and time delay), extracting several parameters from the beam pattern and combining those parameters into the Cost function.
The following numerical example demonstrates the capability of the disclosed method. The goal in this simulation was to create two parallel beams which are offset by �2 mm from the aperture center. The desired depth of field was 20-30 mm with a focal point at 25 mm. FIG. 9 shows the transmit beam pattern with azimuth on the horizontal axis and depth on the vertical axis. This profile was generated with cosinusoidal apodization without numerical optimization. The desired beam split of �2 mm occurred at the focal depth (25 mm). However, the split was not constant over depth, and thus the beams seen in FIG. 9 are not parallel. FIG. 10 shows the result when cosinusoidal apodization is combined with numerical optimization. It is obvious that the beams in FIG. 10 are substantially parallel. Also, the optimization increased the depth of field to the desired 20-30 mm.
The foregoing example is given for the purpose of illustration only. A transmit beam with more than two lateral intensity peaks can also be optimized. Further, transmit paths which are not parallel but rather follow a sector, trapezoidal or other format are possible by specifying a proper Cost function.
The invention has application in medical ultrasonic imaging. However, due to its nature, the invention is also applicable to other coherent imaging methods (such as radar, side-looking radar or microwave).
The invention reduces the line warping artifacts of prior art multiline acquisition methods.
Previously, multiline acquisition was limited to color flow imaging where the warping artifact is less noticeable. The invention opens up the possibility of applying multiline acquisition in B-mode imaging.
While only certain preferred features of the invention have been illustrated and described, many modifications and changes will occur to those skilled in the art. It is, therefore, to be understood that the appended claims are intended to cover all such modifications and changes as fall within the true spirit of the invention.
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|James Hamilton
|Method of modifying data acquisition parameters of an ultrasound device
|20 Jul 2007
|24 Jan 2008
|James Hamilton
|Method of processing spatial-temporal data processing
|14 Sep 2007
|29 May 2008
|Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co., Ltd
|Method and device for transmission of wide-beam in an ultrasonic diagnostic system
|31 Jan 2007
|31 Jul 2008
|Bruno Hans Haider
|Ultrasound Imaging System
|29 Jan 2007
|31 Jul 2008
|Qiaolin Zhang
|Method and apparatus for modeling an apodization effect in an optical lithography system
|2 May 2007
|6 Nov 2008
|Robert Gideon Wodnicki
|Monitoring or imaging system with interconnect structure for large area sensor array
|25 Jun 2007
|25 Dec 2008
|Robert Gideon Wodnicki
|Ultrasound system with through via interconnect structure
|20 Dec 2006
|26 Mar 2009
|Bernhard Grafmueller
|High-resolution synthetic aperture radar device and antenna for one such radar
|10 Jan 2008
|16 Jul 2009
|Robert Gideon Wodnicki
|UltraSound System With Highly Integrated ASIC Architecture
|10 Jan 2008
|16 Jul 2009
|Robert Gideon Wodnicki
|Ultrasound System With Integrated Control Switches
|23 Sep 2009
|1 Apr 2010
|James Hamilton
|System and method for processing a real-time ultrasound signal within a time window
|23 Sep 2009
|8 Apr 2010
|James Hamilton
|System and method for flexible rate processing of ultrasound data
|25 Nov 2009
|3 Jun 2010
|James Hamilton
|Method and system for acquiring and transforming ultrasound data
|17 Mar 2010
|8 Jul 2010
|General Electric Company
|Ultrasound imaging system
|25 Nov 2009
|22 Jul 2010
|James Hamilton
|Dynamic ultrasound processing using object motion calculation
|15 Jan 2010
|22 Jul 2010
|James Hamilton
|System and method for processing a real-time ultrasound signal within a time window
|25 Dec 2008
|28 Oct 2010
|Panasonic Corporation
|Ultrasonic diagnosing apparatus
|26 Feb 2010
|24 Mar 2011
|General Electric Company
|Large area modular sensor array assembly and method for making the same
|9 Nov 2010
|15 Nov 2012
|Sonosite, Inc.
|Systems and methods for beam enhancement
|21 Sep 2004
|4 Feb 2009
|Improved ultrasonic volumetric imaging by coordination of acoustic sampling resolution, volumetric line density and volume imaging rate
|6 Aug 2004
|11 Nov 2009
|Ultrasonic spatial compounding with multiple simultaneous beam transmission
|28 Nov 2006
|18 May 2011
|Method and device for transmitting wide wave beam in ultrasound wave diagnosis system
|6 Aug 2004
|17 Mar 2005
|Koninklijke Philips Electronics, N.V.
|Ultrasonic spatial compounding with multiple simultaneous beam transmission
|21 Sep 2004
|21 Apr 2005
|Koninklijke Philips Electronics, N.V.
|Improved ultrasonic volumetric imaging by coordination of acoustic sampling resolution, volumetric line density and volume imaging rate
|U.S. Classification
|73/602, 600/447, 73/626, 73/625
|International Classification
|Cooperative Classification
|European Classification
|12 Oct 1999
Owner name: GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY, NEW YORK
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNOR:HAIDER, BRUNO HANS;REEL/FRAME:010313/0913
Effective date: 19991004
|29 Nov 2004
|Fee payment
Year of fee payment: 4
|15 Dec 2008
|Fee payment
Year of fee payment: 8
|4 Mar 2013
|Fee payment
Year of fee payment: 12


text:
Global Tax Alert | 6 May 2013
South African Revenue Service continues increased scrutiny of permanent establishment exposure risk
Due to the ever increasing infrastructure/power energy activity in South Africa in the past couple of years, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) has increased its scrutiny with respect to permanent establishment (PE) exposure risk for foreign companies doing business in South Africa.1 Accordingly, the SARS has been specifically focusing on foreign companies contracting with local entities (both private and government entities). This trend has also become increasingly evident in the South African mining sector in recent times.
The trend of SARS queries to request information from South African tax resident entities as to their contractual arrangements with offshore entities for the provision of services/goods in South Africa, both in the infrastructure and the mining arena, has continued unabated. This is generally the first step in assisting SARS to assess the foreign entities' activities in South Africa from a permanent establishment perspective, among other things. This is clearly a "hot topic" within the SARS and companies are facing increasing queries. .
In addition, the SARS is making further queries addressed to the respective foreign entities based on the information obtained from the initial queries.
The SARS has continued to request fairly specific information which includes, but is not limited to the following:
- • A description of the primary business activities of the South African entity, as well as the foreign entity;
- • Details of the contractual arrangement between the South African tax resident entity and the non resident entity/non resident individual to assist, advise, plan, supervise or consult on any of the South African entity's activities in South Africa;
- • Details of any contractual arrangements between the South African tax resident entity and the offshore entity for the supply of goods and machinery;
- • Specific details as to employees of the foreign entity spending time in South Africa relating to consulting services, technical services, installation or general assistance training;
- • Details as to the contract fee;
- • Details of the duration of the contract plus confirmation of any extension of scope or duration of the project; and
- • Details as to whether the foreign entity has been registered for tax.
The SARS queries specifically state that the information is required for the purposes of determining whether a South African permanent establishment has been created by the foreign contractor utilized by the South African company during the period under review. It is important for companies to be aware of this trend and consider action to assess past exposures and identify where action may need to be taken to comply with existing South African tax requirements.
1. See EY Global Tax Alert, Increased South African permanent exposure risk, dated 21 December 2011.
For additional information with respect to this Alert, please contact the following:
EY Advisory Services Ltd, Johannesburg, South Africa
- • Justin Liebenberg
+27 11 772 3907
- • Jacqui Peart
+27 11 772 3045
EY (China) Advisory Services Limited, Pan African Tax Desk, Beijing
- • Rendani Neluvhalani
+86 10 5815 2831
Ernst & Young LLP, Pan African Tax Desk, New York
- • Dele Olaogun
+1 212 773 2546
Ernst & Young LLP (United Kingdom), Pan African Tax Desk, London
- • Leon Steenkamp
+44 20 7951 1976
EYG no. CM3418

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Guild 01
- Game/
- Nintendo 3DS/
- Level-5
Collection of four unique games from four unique creators including Suda 51, Yasumi Matsuno and Yoot Saito.
Low Sell Through For Guild 01, High Sell Through For Dragon Quest
2012-06-08 - Sales stats from Media Create. Read More »
Dragon Quest Monsters Sells Half Million First Week
2012-06-07 - Media Create dominance from the 3DS remake. Read More »
Keiji Inafune Working on Level-5's Guild 02
2012-05-23 - Sequel announced before Guild 01's release. Read More »
2012-04-24 - An even better look at Level-5's new 3DS title. Read More »
2012-04-10 - Four games in one in Level-5's latest. Read More »
Guild 01's Liberation Girl Detailed
2012-02-11 - Take control of Japan's schoolgirl president in Suda 51's new shooter. Read More »
2012-02-03 - Yasumi Matsuno's contribution to Level-5's Guild 01 gets its full reveal. Read More »
First Guild 01 Crimson Shroud Details
2012-02-01 - Yasumi Matsuno's contribution to Level-5's new 3DS game is a tactical RPG. Read More »
2011-10-16 - Straight from Level-5 World, first footage of Level-5's experimental 3DS title. Read More »
2011-10-15 - This year's festival of Akihiro Hino promises new announcements (most of which have already leaked out, but read anyway!) Read More »
Level-5 World: Show Map and More Hints at Mystery Titles
2011-10-14 - Guild 01 and Little Battler eXperience Card Game go playable this weekend. Read More »
2011-10-14 - Level-5's new 3DS title has four games from the likes of Suda 51, Yoot Saito and Yasumi Matsuno. Famitsu shares first screens. Read More »


text:
Name ideas. Domain check. Contests. More.
Bargains Name Contests
A 1vs1 leaderboard for the game Titanfall that operates on a weekly basis.
Winner: TitanicCommunity.com
Tech based business for locating available resource with relevant skills and in right location. Targeting large variation of industries that source skilled workers...
Winner: Enskil.com
A Nigerian based digital currencies trading platform offering local currencies, Bitcoin & Ethereum etc across Africa. Need a unique and memorable name.
Winner: SafariCurrency.com
Hello, I am looking for a name for a brand /website. I am selling refurbished phone online. - High Quality product - Service - Green Market First, it will be for french market, so need an easy quick international name :)
Winner: TwiceMint.com
Online resume, cv and cover letter builder. Can be used for free and without registration, but with some additional functionality after registration, and with even more functionality after making a small one-time payment...
Winner: EaseCv.com
Generate Domain Names
Names > Bargains Names > Bargains Name Contests
Generate names with this word:
Unlock extra features


text:
Artist description:
The thumb is so bad!! err, anyways, I drew this cause I'm bored, also because my relatives are home and I cant do anything so yeah....oh my bro's birthday is in a week!! :D
Flash Draw Created Mar 24, 2012 460 x 640px Unless noted Copyright 2012 Kawaii-Panda-123.
We encourage you to submit a comment and let the artist know what you think of this drawing. Please log in or join to post a comment.
Post a comment
I love Miku-Chan! 3
aww she's soo cute i love her adorable eyes
She's so sweet !! :) and great coloring.. 5h


text:
All business decisions impact value. You may be considering a transaction, transferring intellectual property, insuring your assets, engaged in a value dispute or considering the value impact of a new project or strategy. How will these decisions affect value?
We collaborate with our clients to measure, evaluate and advise to establish the true value of assets, capital expenditure, acquisitions and investments.
Do you know the value impact?
All business decisions impact value, but do you know by how much? We apply a value lens to important decisions to bring a clearer focus on:
Measuring value
PwC's valuations team provide independent, objective, expert valuation advice including:
Deal evaluation
Executing a successful transaction is no mean feat. Deals often fail to achieve their original financial or strategic objectives and many companies are not prepared for the speed and intensity of the deal process.
We help businesses identify, quantify and deliver the full value of the deal with greater speed, insight and confidence.
Our valuation professionals help improve the odds of success by increasing the level of diligence, including:
Andrew Wellington
Tel: +61 7 3257 8816
Nigel Smythe
Tel: +61 3 8603 3970


text:
Pittsburgh Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin stands next to the Vince Lombardi Trophy as he speaks to the media at a Press Conference during the week of Super Bowl XLV in Dallas, Texas on February 4, 2011. UPI/John Angelillo
United Press International is a leading provider of news, photos and information to millions of readers around the globe via UPI.com and its licensing services.
With a history of reliable reporting dating back to 1907, today's UPI is a credible source for the most important stories of the day, continually updated - a one-stop site for U.S. and world news, as well as entertainment, trends, science, health and stunning photography. UPI also provides insightful reports on key topics of geopolitical importance, including energy and security.


text:
Blue Jays drop second straight to surging Orioles
Blue Jays drop second straight to surging Orioles
Toronto would like to see how Villanueva performs when he's asked to pitch deeper into games. For the most part, the veteran has been looked upon as a maximum six-inning pitcher, but that needs to change if the Blue Jays are going to offer him a spot in next year's rotation.
The audition process took another turn on Tuesday night as Villanueva pitched into the seventh inning for just the fourth time this year, but he also allowed a season-high six runs in a lopsided 12-0 loss to the Orioles at Rogers Centre.
"Looking back on this one, just trying to get Carlos extended deeper into a game," Blue Jays manager John Farrell said after the loss. "One of the things we've got to take a longer look at, is just how deep he can get into ballgames consistently."
On the surface, the early results from that initial test are not positive. After facing the minimum through four innings, Villanueva surrendered a three-run homer to Mark Reynolds in the fifth, a sacrifice fly to Nate McLouth in the sixth and another sacrifice fly to Robert Andino in the seventh.
But Villanueva was still well within range of his most recent pitch counts. He entered the seventh inning on 82 pitches and when he departed with a runner on third and two outs, Villanueva had thrown just 90.
Despite the relatively low pitch count, Farrell said that he didn't see the same quality of stuff from Villanueva during the later innings.
"In the seventh, a number of pitches were left up in the zone," Farrell said. "Didn't quite have the finish down in the strike zone as he had been showing previously. That was the difference, just elevation on some pitches inside the strike zone that they were able to capitalize on."
Villanueva has been vocal in recent weeks about his desire to pitch deeper into games. All of that talk has come during a recent string of success, which has seen the Dominican native become one of the Blue Jays' most reliable starters.
The 28-year-old Villanueva entered play on Tuesday with a 5-4 record and a 3.03 ERA as a starter, while recording seven quality starts in 11 outings this season. Even though the success has been there, he frequently has been limited to six innings -- perhaps in part because of a right elbow injury that cost him more than a month on the disabled list in 2011.
The desire to have extended outings will become a key storyline in the coming weeks, as Villanueva inches closer to reaching free agency for the first time in his career. Villanueva's stated preference is to start, and he'll need to be compensated for that role -- especially if he displays improved stamina over the final month of the year.
But the evaluation process is just as critical for the Blue Jays, who will be examining a guy who has been a reliever for the vast majority of his time in the big leagues. Even though the late-inning results didn't go Villanueva's way, he didn't think fatigue played any role at all against Baltimore.
"In that seventh inning, I came out, [Chris] Davis hit a weak ground ball with nobody there," Villanueva said. "I got the next guy and then [Manny] Machado, I just didn't make a good pitch, he hit that double.
"But I'm happy I got the chance to go back out there. Obviously I'm disappointed I couldn't have a shut-down inning there, at least keep it close, but they showed why they're in a race. Bottom line, we just have to play better."
Offensively, the Blue Jays saw their struggles against left-handed pitching continue. Toronto was held off the scoreboard and managed a total of four hits and two walks while going 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position against Orioles starter Zach Britton.
Britton has now allowed just two runs on eight hits and four walks in 13 2/3 innings during the past two starts against the Blue Jays. He has allowed a total of just three runs in four starts since rejoining the starting rotation on Aug. 18.
Toronto saw its average against lefties drop to .246 (329-for-1338) while posting a .307 on-base percentage and 169 runs, which ranks 19th in the Major Leagues. Farrell said a lot of the problems center around playing without the services of injured players Jose Bautista, J.P. Arencibia and Brett Lawrie.
"When we face left-handers, Colby [Rasmus], Adam [Lind] and Kelly [Johnson], their extra-base production is adversely affected," Farrell said. "That's where we see the absence of the depth of the right-handed side of the lineup really start to show up, when you're missing Jose, J.P. and Brett against left-handed starters, it shows itself."
Toronto has lost four consecutive games -- including two against the Orioles -- while Baltimore is headed in the opposite direction. With the Rays defeating the Yankees 5-2 on Tuesday night, the Orioles moved into a first-place tie with New York atop the American League East standings.
"We're on a good roll, but I think our heads are in the right spot," Britton said. "We're not looking too far ahead, we're focusing on the moment."
Gregor Chisholm is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, North of the Border, and follow him on Twitter @gregorMLB. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


text:
PlastiBell technique. About 7 minutes. Inserting PlastiBell. Holding foreskin in place over and beyond the glans and tying thread over foreskin in PlastiBell groove. PlastiBell in place with foreskin tied off. Grasping foreskin with tweezers and cutting it off with surgical scissors.
Freehand technique. About 22 minutes. Injection at base of penis. Tying white cloth around penis. Two forceps grabbing foreskin. Clamping foreskin beyond glans. Slicing foreskin off with scalpel. Releasing clamp, blotting blood, pulling incision site back behind glans, cutting inner foreskin off. Sewing remaining skin together.
PlastiBell. About 16 min. Injection at base of penis and at frenulum. Grasping frenulum with tweezers, cutting it, then sewing it. Rolling retracted foreskin forward over glans and over PlastiBell. Trying off foreskin over PlastiBell. Pinching foreskin and cutting through outer foreskin with scalpel in circular motion, then cutting off inside fold with scissors. Sewing remaining skin together.
Freehand. About 20 minutes. Cutting frenulum with scalpel. Sewing frenulum. Clamping off foreskin beyond glans, slicing off with scalpel. Releasing forceps, outer skin slipping back revealing inner surface of inner foreskin. Sewing remaining skin together.
About 4 minutes. Injection. Cutting frenulum.
About 2 hours. Color. Video only; no sound. Picture quality: Poor-plus to Fair-minus. (Clear enough to see and watch, however.) Copied at Standard Play (SP) on premium grade VHS tape. NTSC (American) format only.
$50 postpaid. Outside US add $4.
Check or money order drawn on U.S. bank in U.S. dollars only.
Please include signed "I am over 21 years of age" statement.
Order from:
John A. Erickson
1664 Beach Blvd. #216
Biloxi, MS 39531-5351
Please note:
I have no videos of children or for children and don't know or want to know anyone who does. If you are looking for videos showing the genitals of children, try Sing Sing or San Quentin.
Return to opening page


text:
Album Rating: 3.5sounds tacky as fuck. my condolences.
Album Rating: 3.7It was but hey at least there wasn't any Nickelback like last year lol
Although new Linkin Park more than made up for that (ugh)
Anyway I just realised you called tom "thomas" up the top of his page and he actually responded, now I'm confused
Digging: The Used - The Canyon
caught me off guard
Album Rating: 3.7You're slipping dude, I'm gonna start firing thomas's at you at unexpected points in the future to make sure this doesn't happen again
Album Rating: 3.5smh
thanks i appreciate your support
Album Rating: 3.7smh [2]
Album Rating: 3.5smd [3]
oh great you guys are on the smh thing too now? rip
Album Rating: 3.7Its like an infection man I can't stop
This is probably why Fourth left, he was becoming oltna
Album Rating: 3.5I was doing it ironically at first, but it has slowly consumed my soul. help me.
fourth left? damn
Album Rating: 3.5didn't you hear? he named you as best user in his goodbye list which he later deleted. rip fourth.
Album Rating: 3.7"I was doing it ironically at first, but it has slowly consumed my soul. help me."
"fourth left? damn"
Yeah dude he hasn't posted since his "aight gtg pce" list like a week ago
Me and avon did a sick rap in his honour but the list seems to be gone
i missed it all man what did he say in the list as his reasons?
Album Rating: 3.5kinda bummed out he deleted that list, we had the rhymes a flowin'
Album Rating: 3.7Dude he's Reich he didn't give reasons lol
I wouldn't be surprised if he came back I mean I didn't think he was actually leaving at first but like I said he hasn't posted since (that I've seen)
Yeah avon dude that was some sexy shit
Album Rating: 3.5all he said was "aight g2g pce," touching words from a true poet.
I guess you'd be pretty bummed out, knew yáll niggaz was tight.
eh not too fussed we're fb buds so
Album Rating: 3.7Sweet say hi to him from me
Bands: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z


text:
Westchester County
Department Stores
For a list of department stores and places to shop in Westchester County, go to Westchester Department Stores. Department stores in Westchester, New York include Bloomingdales, Nordstrom, Lord & Taylor, Macy's, Sears, J.C. Penny, Kohl's, Kmart, Marshalls, T. J. Maxx, and Target.
Westchester's shopping centers and malls are home to some of the best department stores, carrying a large selection of both upscale designer fashions and less expensive lines of clothes. Find stores featuring back to school sales and other fall discount bargains. Buy clothes, school uniforms, shoes, backpacks, and find great buys for girls, boys and kids of all ages. Shop at one of Westchester's many department stores, located in Westchester County. Find
Shopping in Cortlandt, NY
Shopping in Elmsford, NY
Shopping in Hartsdale, NY
Shopping in Katonah, NY,
Shopping in Mohegan Lake, NY
Shopping in New Rochelle, NY
Shopping in Pelham Manor, NY
Shopping in White Plains, NY
Shopping in Yonkers, NY
Shopping in Yorktown Heights
For the best in upscale shopping, visit The Westchester in White Plains and have a fabulous shopping experience. With total sky-lighting above, marble and carpeted floors below, sculptures and unequaled customer service, The Westchester is home to two of New York State's most upscale department stores, Nordstrom and Neiman-Marcus.
For holiday shopping in Westchester, visit stores featuring back to school bargains, holiday shopping sales, and great discounts for every budget. Westchester offers a large selection in spring and winter clothes, shoes, boots, and outerwear, school uniforms, backpacks, and more for girls, boys and kids of all ages. Westchester's department stores - located in Southern, Mid Westchester, and Northern Westchester County offer the best in one-stop department store shopping.
Shop in Yonkers where you will find the largest shopping center in Westchester County. The Cross County Shopping Center with over 1 million square feet of retail space is Westchester's largest mall. Cross County also offers Multiplex Cinemas featuring stadium seating and digital sound. Anchor department stores at Cross County include Sears and Macy's.
T.J. Maxx, sometimes referred to as TJ's or the Maxx, is a chain of department stores offering clothes and home fashion at discount prices. T. J. Maxx Westchester locations include:
T. J. Maxx in Mount Kisco, NY
T. J. Maxx in Mount Vernon, NY
T. J. Maxx in Yorktown Heights, NY
T. J. Maxx in Yonkers, NY
Marshalls is a chain of department stores offering family apparel and home goods at discount prices. For designer brands at bargain prices, visit Marshalls at the Mall at Cross County. Additional locations include:
Marshalls in Hartsdale
Marshalls in New Rochelle
Marshalls in Pelham Manor
Marshalls in Yonkers
Marshalls in Elmsford
Westchester County offers everything in shopping - large department stores such as Sears, Macy's, Bloomingdales and Nordstrom, a full range of discount women, men's and children's clothing stores, boutiques, specialty stores, and charming villages and towns in which to shop.
Brief History of Shopping Malls, Shopping Centers, and Factory Outlets
The evolution of shopping malls, factory outlets, shopping centers, shopping plazas . . . have evolved and grown for more than half a century. Today, many of these malls are far larger than many towns and cities in the world.
Today, in 2009, Asia is home to seven of the world's 10 largest malls . . . South China Mall, Dongguan, China opened in 2005. South China Mall's the gross leasable area is 7.1 million square feet. The space includes wind mills and theme parks, plus a replica of the Arc de Triomphe.
SM Mall of Asia opened in 2009 and is located in Pasay City, Philippines. The gross leasable area is: 4.2 million square feet. This mall includes the first Olympic-sized swimming pool and first IMAX theater in the Philippines. The mall is spread over four buildings and visitors can move throughout the mall on a 20-seat tram.
Mall of America opened in 1992 and is located in Bloomington, MN. The mall is 2.5 million sq. feet and has earned a national reputation for entertaining guests. From musical acts to celebrity book signing to fashion show, Mall of America is the Hollywood of the Midwest. Mall of America has been described as a city within a city. Along with an extensive range of retail, restaurants, and entertainment, there are many unique features in this mall that may be found in any American community. This mall offers education classes, fitness training and more.
Let's go back to a brief history of the Northgate Shopping Mall. "On April 21, 1950, the Northgate Shopping Mall opens at NE Northgate Way at 5th Avenue NE in Seattle. Planned by developers Rex Allison and Ben B. Ehrlichman (1895-1971) and designed by John Graham Jr. (1908-1991), it is the country's first regional shopping center defined as a "mall" (although there were at least three predecessor shopping centers). The stores face "a wide shopping walkway, probably to be known as the Mall or Plaza, in which no vehicles will be permitted" (The Seattle Times) . . .
"Northgate was the brainchild of Rex Allison, president of Bon Marché. Before World War II, he envisioned a suburban shopping center. The economic boom following Allied victory in 1945 allowed Allied Stores, the firm that owned Bon Marché, to involve developers Ben B. Ehrlichman and W. Walter Williams (1894-1983), who formed the Suburban Co. (later The Northgate Co.). They retained architect John H. Graham Jr. to design the project and announced their plans in February 1948. In 1949, Allied bought out Ehrlichman and Williams and appointed James B. Douglas (1909-2005) to run the project as president."
The above information about Northgate was sourced from
David Wilma, August 02, 2001
Evolution of the Shopping Center
1916 Chicago architect Arthur Aldis persuaded wealthy residents of Lake Forest, Illinois, and investors such as Cyrus H. McCormick, Jr., to form the Lake Forest Improvement Trust to build Market Square, an integrated shopping complex of 28 stores, 12 office units, 30 apartments, gymnasium, clubhouse and landscaping. According to Richard Longstreth, "The automobile was a central factor in this planning, since most Lake Foresters had cars at an early date. Market Square was perhaps the first business district to be laid out specifically to accommodate motor vehicles." (p. 152) The National Register of Historic Places has listed Market Square as the first planned shopping district in the United States.
1922 J. C. Nichols created Country Club Plaza on the outskirts of Kansas City, Missouri, as an automobile-centered plaza built according to a unified plan rather than as a random group of stores, owned and operated by a single entity who leased space to tenants. Nichols would make the term shopping center popular . . .
. . . 1928 Don M. Casto opened Grandview Avenue Shopping Center in Columbus, Ohio, with 4 supermarkets (Piggly-Wiggly, A&P, Kroger, Polumbos) and 20 other stores and parking for 400 cars. Grandview became a model for the auto-accessible strip mall. In New Jersey, Radburn was built as a planned city with parks and walkways and decentralized shopping areas.
1929 Westwood Village opened as a shopping center for the "second Hollywood" of Westwood built on the site of the 3300-acre Rancho San Jose de Buenos Aires between Beverly Hills and Santa Monica, purchased in 1919 by department store owner Arthur Letts (Broadway, Bullocks), and developed by his son-in-law Harold Janss as a housing tract after 1922, including the sale of 384 acres to UCLA in 1926 for a university campus that opened 1929, and a shopping center of 34 stores in 1929 that grew to 452 stores by 1939.
1930 Strawbridge & Clothier department store in Philadelphia built a branch store at Suburban Square in Ardmore on the Main Line. In many cities, department stores became the leading force in building suburban shopping centers.
1931 The Highland Park Shopping Village designed by Hugh Prather in Dallas was a Mediterranean-style shopping center with storefronts facing an inner parking lot.
1935 Greenbelt, Maryland, was built by the New Deal as a planned community including stores, but not organized as a shopping center.
1938 - Silver Spring Shopping Center in Silver Spring, MD, was an early neighborhood center of 19 stores anchored by a grocery store and the Silver Theatre, with an off-street parking lot, designed by John Eberson.
1939 The Wisstein Brothers and Surval project opened on South Broadway in Los Angeles, a neighborhood center that appealed to chain stores such as the drugstore (Owl, Sontag, Thrifty) and the supermarket (Von's, Ralphs) and the variety store (Kress, Woolworth, Newberry) seeking to build away from urban congestion on well-travelled streets accessible by automobile, each center providing a small parking lot for 100-300 cars.
1943 Linda Vista Shopping Center in San Diego was built by the Department of Treasury for the government housing project that served Reuben Fleet's Consolidated Aircraft workers in World War II, and it was one of the first shopping centers designed as a unique space, separate from the streets and the houses, using a hollow square design for 82,000 sq. ft. on a block of land with landscaped green and pedestrian walks, but limited parking space for only 216 cars. Similar shopping centers would be developed in World War II for defense housing projects, such as Westchester in Los Angeles and Willow Run in Detroit.
. . .1949 Don M. Casto opened the Town & Country in the suburb of Whitehall east of Columbus. "Nighttime shopping was inaugurated at Town & Country Shopping Center in Columbus, Ohio, when developer Don Casto hired Grandma Carver (a woman who dived from a 90-foot perch into a 4-foot pool of flaming water), to perform her act in the lighted parking lot, bringing shopping center promotion to a new level." (ICSC 2000)
1950 Northgate opened near Seattle on April 21, the first regional shopping center defined as a mall . Anchored by a Bon Marche department store, it provided 800,000 sq. ft. for stores arranged in a linear pattern along a 44-foot wide pedestrian walkway, or "mall" that would become the center spine of all future regional shopping centers. The word came from the British game of pall-mall, or "ball and mallett" combining elements of croquet and golf, played since the 1500s on a wide fairway green.
1950 The drive-in grew in popularity as cars and suburbs shifted population away from center cities; the Campus Drive-In near San Diego State University featured a 50-foot-high neon majorette.
1951 Valley Plaza opened as the first shopping center designed to be built near major freeways, anchored by a Sears store, located in the rapidly growing suburbs of the San Fernando Valley north of Los Angeles.
1952 Lakewood Center opened 7 miles north of Long Beach near a Douglas Aircraft factory as one of the largest shopping malls in Southern California, with 100 stores and parking for 12,000 cars on 154 acres, anchored by a 350,000 sq. ft. May Co. department store with 2 supermarkets at each end of the linear center. In the next 8 years, 13 other regional malls would be built in the Los Angeles area.
1953 Cherry Creek Shopping Center in Denver opened, planned by architect Temple Buell since 1946, under construction since 1950, anchored by Denver Dry Goods on one side of First Avenue and in 1954 by Buell's metal-trimmed Sears Roebuck store on the other side of First Avenue.
1954 Austrian-born Victor Gruen designed Northland, near Detroit, with 110 stores in 1,192,000 sq. ft. on 2 levels, in a cluster arrangement surrounded by parking lot, modeled on the agora, the town squares of ancient Greece. "Gruen, a refugee who had fled the Nazis and arrived in New York in 1938 with $8 in his pocket and little more than his T-square in his luggage, had worked on some of those early open-air shopping centers. Then Detroit's J. L. Hudson department store chain commissioned him to design a center 8 miles away from its flagship downtown store to take advantage of the recent suburban developments spawned by the city's postwar expressways. In 1954, when it opened, the Northland Center was the world's largest shopping mall." (US News 12/27/99)
1956 Victor Gruen's 95-acre two-level Southdale Center Mall opened Oct. 8 in Edina, MN, near Minneapolis, the first fully enclosed shopping center, with a constant climate-controlled temperature of 72 degrees, inspired by the design of the Galleria Vittoria Emanuele designed and built by architect Giuseppe Mengoni 1865-77 in Milan, Italy. In Maryland, James Rouse opened in October the Mondawmin Mall west of Baltimore.
1957 International Council of Shopping Centers was founded with a membership of 36. The first chairman of the ICSC Board was Leonard L. Farber who had developed suburban strip centers from his New York company headquarters. Albert Sussman was elected the ICSC president 1958-86 . . .
. . . 1962 - Victor Gruen designed the downtown Midtown Plaza for Rochester, NY, opened April 1962, on 7 acres with 2 department stores, McCurdy's and Forman's, at a cost $35 million, "the single largest private investment in America's downtown retailing since World War II " (Hardwick p. 201) Gruen's Randhurst Shopping Center in Mount Prospect near Chicago also opened this year, considered at that time the world's largest shopping center with 1 million sq ft and 3 department stores under a giant dome . . .
. . . 1967 Ernest W. Hahn opened his first regional shopping center, La Cumbre Plaza in Santa Barbara, California. In Maryland, the Rouse Company built the planned community of Columbia and made it the headquarters of the company. The Rouse Company became one of the largest mall builders in the East, as the Ernest Hahn Company would become in the West .
. . . 1972 After 20 years of steadily expanding construction, the United States had a total of 13,174 shopping centers.
1973 The Hahn Co. built the Parkway Plaza shopping center in El Cajon that included a three-screen United Artists theater (closed in 1989).
1974 Westminster Mall opened south of Los Angeles, the last regional mall built with a huge central court.
1975 Fox Hills Mall opened in Los Angeles, the first 3-level mall in Calfornia. Westwood Mall opened near Houston. . .
. . . 1977 - Roy Ramond founded Victoria's Secret lingerie store in San Francisco, and after being sold in 1982 to The Limited corporation, expanded rapidly into shopping centers, with 1000 stores by 2005. . .
. . . 1990 The decade of the 1980s saw the construction of more than 16,000 shopping centers. A Gallup poll showed Americans averaged four trips to a regional or neighborhood mall per month.
1992 Sara Donovan, founder of WalkSport America, began promoting "mall walking," later wrote book "Mall Walking Madness" in 2002.
1993 Shaheen Sadeghi built The Lab in Costa Mesa CA as an "anti-mall" from a former canning factory; and he built The Camp in 2002 in Costa Mesa for outdoor shoppers with five buildings and landscaping simulating a desert and meadow and forest, called "a shopping playground."
1994 The Westfield Company of Australia purchased CenterMark for $1 billion, giving it ownership of 19 regional malls, adding to its American properties that included the purchase of Macy's shopping centers in 1986 for $363 million. In 1998 Westfield purchased TrizecHahn to become the largest owner of regional malls in California, Maryland, and Connecticut.
1995 The first megaplex theater (defined as 14 screens or more) opened in May in Dallas with a 24-screen AMC palace; in November, Edwards opened a 21-screen megaplex at Irvine Spectrum Center, at a cost of $27-million for 158,000 square feet with 6,400 seats and a 3D IMAX.
1996 AMC opened the largest megaplex in the nation, a 30-screen, 5,700 seat theater in Ontario CA. "At the 200-store Ontario Mills Mall, a new concept called "interactive shoppertainment" specifically targets parents, dating couples, families and kids. The lure; do everything from ogling bobcats and lizards at an on-site museum to skiing in virtual reality video game." (Sun-Times 3/21/99)
1997 Pacific Theatres opened a $15 million, 15-screen multiplex theater near Horton Plaza in the Gaslamp Quarter of San Diego. Gene Kemp completed the renovation of the Fashion Valley mall in San Diego, originally built in 1969 by Ernest Hahn, increasing its size to 1,700,000 sq. ft. and 205 stores, adding 5 parking structures to accommodate 8000 cars.
2000 Factory outlet centers became one of the fastest-growing segments of the shopping center industry in the 1990s. Anderson-Little in 1936 began the first factory outlet store for its men's clothing overstock . . . By 1987 there were 108 factory outlet malls, by 1999 there were 278 outlet centers.
2005 According to Emil Pocock, the largest shopping center in the world was the Golden Resources Shopping Mall in Beijing, China, with 7,300,000 square feet total area. The largest mall in North America was West Edmonton Mall in Alberta, Canada, with 5,500,000 sq. ft. and 20,000 parking spaces. The largest shopping mall in the United States was Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, with 4,200,000 sq. ft., parking for 12,500 cars, and a seven-acre amusement park, nightclubs, restaurants.
2006 - Otay Ranch Town Center will open in October on 85 acres off Olympic Parkway in the boomtown of Chula Vista. As a "lifestyle mall," it will combine some aspects of a regional mall with an old-fashioned town square. In its first phase, it will have 80 specialty stores, mostly upscale; possibly a Nordstrom department store; and several restaurants, including P.F. Chang's China Bistro and The Cheesecake Factory. In its second phase in 2008, it will add an additional 20 specialty stores and possibly another upper-end department store . . . The developer is Chicago-based General Growth Properties, who have calculated that an estimated 70,000 people cross the border each day, and 63 percent of them come to shop.
Source: Timeline history


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When I was still in school I dabbled a bit with the sport of power lifting. I spent hours in the gym, read as many training books as I could find, and even attended a few competitions. I never did that well, but I managed to build enough strength to give an awkward teenager a small boost in self esteem. Going to the gym every day also allowed me to meet some pretty interesting people.
One friend I made, Eddie, was the strongest guy I have ever met. He trained just for power and his specialty was the bench press. Eddie got to a point where he could put up a 500 pound bench press in the gym on any given day like it was nothing. In a competition his numbers were even more impressive.
The funny thing about Eddie was how very specific his strength was. Almost all his training was geared around building a bigger and bigger bench press. So although he looked impressive in a t-shirt and threw around massive weights, his strength wasn't very applicable to anything outside of the gym. He was terrible at using his strength for everyday tasks, like moving a couch for example. Even worse, if you asked him to go for a run, his bodyweight alone prevented him from being able to go more than a few hundred feet without getting tired.
In many ways the field of disaster recovery has built out its' strengths in the same way Eddie built up his bench press. By focusing on one platform at a time, or one operating system, vendors have been able to build sophisticated protection solutions for each specific area IT has to manage. The problem is that as IT continues to carry more responsibility each year, and as datacenters have grown in both scale and heterogeneity, it is no longer reasonable to manage multiple solutions for multiple platforms.
Virtualization is one of the great equalizing technologies. It has allowed administrators to run multiple operating systems on one flexible virtual platform; abstracting applications away from the different hardware platforms they used to be tied to. This flexibility is one of the reasons why virtualization is an ideal platform to build out next generation disaster recovery solutions.
Products like PlateSpin Protect and PlateSpin Forge use virtual machines as flexible backup archives, and a virtual hypervisor as an agnostic recovery environment. This effectively breaks down the walls between the isolated disaster recovery solutions of the past, and gives administrators a single pane of glass view into managing all of their DR needs. With products like this DR can be an all around athlete like a decathlete or NFL linebacker, rather than single focused like Eddie, allowing protection of physical and virtual servers, running both Windows and Linux all with one solution.
Oh and as far as how my gym regimen looks like today. Let's just say I should probably spend a little less time lifting cheeseburgers and a little more time back on the bench press. Hey maybe we can start a Novell community weight loss club… Who's game?
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In his Friday visit to Lambeth Palace, Pope Benedict XVI met with Archbishop Rowan Williams to discuss the state of Catholic-Anglican relations. In public remarks, the two leaders recalled the example of Cardinal Newman and noted both the difficulties and the promise of ecumenical dialogue in Christian friendship.
Speaking in the Great Hall of the Archbishop's Library, Pope Benedict opened by saying it was a pleasure for him to return the courtesy of visits the Archbishop of Canterbury had made to him in Rome. After greeting the assembled Anglican and Catholic bishops, he noted the "historic meeting" at Canterbury Cathedral in 1982 between Pope John Paul II and then-Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie.
They had prayed together for the "gift" of Christian unity at the place of St. Thomas of Canterbury's martyrdom, the Pope continued.
"We continue today to pray for that gift, knowing that the unity Christ willed for his disciples will only come about in answer to prayer, through the action of the Holy Spirit, who ceaselessly renews the Church and guides her into the fullness of truth," he continued.
While controversies in the Anglican Communion have arisen over the ordination of women as priests and bishops, the ordination of homosexuals and other theological and ethical issues, Pope Benedict did not speak of "difficulties" which are "well known to everyone here."
Rather, Pope Benedict gave thanks "for the deep friendship that has grown between us and for the remarkable progress that has been made in so many areas of dialogue."
"Let us entrust the fruits of that work to the Lord of the harvest, confident that he will bless our friendship with further significant growth."
Anglican-Catholic dialogue has evolved in "dramatic ways" since Pope John XXIII and Archbishop Geoffrey Fisher met in 1960, he explained. The surrounding culture is "growing ever more distant from its Christian roots, despite a deep and widespread hunger for spiritual nourishment." At the same time there is increasing cultural diversity and encounters with other religions.
This opens for Christians the possibility to explore with others the ways of witnessing to "the transcendent dimension of the human person and the universal call to holiness" which leads to the practice of personal and social virtue. Ecumenical cooperation is "essential" in this task and will "surely bear fruit in promoting peace and harmony."
"At the same time, we Christians must never hesitate to proclaim our faith in the uniqueness of the salvation won for us by Christ, and to explore together a deeper understanding of the means he has placed at our disposal for attaining that salvation," continued Pope Benedict.
Citing 1 Tim 2:4, he said that the eternal Son of the Father Jesus Christ is the truth "who has reconciled all things in himself by the power of his Cross."
"We recognize that the Church is called to be inclusive, yet never at the expense of Christian truth," the Pope added, calling this the "dilemma" of genuine ecumenism.
He cited the life of the 19th century cleric, theologian and Catholic convert John Henry Cardinal Newman. According to the Pontiff, Newman was nurtured by his Anglican background and matured during his ministry in the Church of England.
"He can teach us the virtues that ecumenism demands: on the one hand, he was moved to follow his conscience, even at great personal cost; and on the other hand, the warmth of his continued friendship with his former colleagues, led him to explore with them, in a truly irenical spirit, the questions on which they differed."
"Your Grace, in that same spirit of friendship, let us renew our determination to pursue the goal of unity in faith, hope, and love, in accordance with the will of our one Lord and Savior Jesus Christ," the Holy Father told the Archbishop, concluding his remarks with a blessing.
According to Vatican Radio, Archbishop Williams' remarks praised Pope Benedict's "consistent and penetrating analysis" of the state of European society as a "major contribution" to the debate on the relationship between Church and culture. The Archbishop of Canterbury also cited the Pope's comments at his 2005 Inaugural Mass in which he said that nothing is lost by letting Christ into our lives because only in Christ's friendship is humanity's great potential revealed.
Discussing Cardinal Newman, Archbishop Williams said that when he decided to convert to Catholicism his Anglican friend Rev. Edward Bouverie Pusey meditated on the "parting of friends." Discussing Anglican-Catholic relations, Pusey said, "it is what is unholy on both sides that keeps us apart."
After their public remarks, the two religious leaders met in private. According to Vatican Radio, this meeting affirmed the need to proclaim the Gospel message of Salvation in Jesus Christ amid profound cultural transformation while also living lives of holiness.
The two leaders agreed upon the importance of improving ecumenical relations and of continuing theological dialogue in the face of new internal and external challenges to unity. This theological dialogue should focus on the notion of the Church as a local and a universal communion.
Additionally, the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury reflected on the serious situation of Christians in the Middle East and called upon all Christians to pray for and support their brothers' and sisters' peaceful witness in the Holy Land. They also discussed the needs of the poor and urged international leadership to fight hunger and disease.
Following their private meeting, the two traveled together to the Palace of Westminster and to Evening Prayer at Westminster Abbey.
Pope Benedict will beatify Cardinal Newman on Sunday.


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Verizon "Any App, Any Device" Tech Specs Go Up March 19
Seem like it might be obvious, but the technical specs for wild, woolly and wonderful devices to attach to Verizon's soon-to-be wide open network will be unveiled March 19 at their Open Development Device Conference. Start heating up those soldering irons, boys. [Verizon]


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Video: "Don't Take It There"
DJ Kayslay Feat. Papoose & Junior Reid
Posted by Goat | Filed under Movies / T.V., Music
Tags: DJ Kayslay, Junior Reid, Papoose
2 Responses to "Video: "Don't Take It There"
DJ Kayslay Feat. Papoose & Junior Reid"
Money C. Paycheck Says:
August 13th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
I have many things on my mind bout this low budget vid…To keep it simple though..wats good wit Junior Reid? Is he like the instant Jamaican for Hip-Hop hooks now?
Goat Says:
August 13th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Everybody goes through it, remember Mavado, and before that it was Sean Paul, and Beenie Man, and Bounty Killer. Token Dancehall it should be called


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[WARNING: Contains profanity … as does most of this blog … but it occurred to me after linking to this entry from an entry on The Pioneer Woman's far more wholesome site that some of her audience might come over and have a heart attack when they unwittingly stumbled into a big pile of "F" bombs … so, now that you've been warned, any cardiac issues that might result from reading the following are on you.]
About a million years ago, I mentioned some trouble we were having with raccoons getting into our trash barrels. Months later, my barrel nightmare continues … and, at this point, the raccoons aren't even the problem; I am. But we'll get to that.
Last summer and fall, I often started my day by glancing out the window and noticing that my two trash barrels were lying on their sides with the lids off, the plastic bags of refuse contained therein shredded, and the now-half-eaten contents of said plastic bags strewn about the back steps, walkway and yard.
"Fuck!" I would exclaim. "Goddamn motherfucking raccoons!" I would add.*
Then I would go outside with a plastic grocery bag over my hand and use it to pick up and deposit back into the barrels the various slimy and disgusting gobs of partially chewed bread, pizza, wet tissues, coffee filters, ear swabs, chicken bones and a myriad of other gag-reflex-inducing items—all of which were made even more delectable if it had rained during the night.
After a couple of these episodes, I realized I needed to do something to prevent the raccoons from getting into the barrels. I started simple: I placed a couple of plastic lawn chairs upside down on top of the barrels … both to physically prevent the raccoons from gaining access, and to simultaneously give the appearance of an eating establishment that had closed for the night. "Go elsewhere, vermin; we're closed," the upside-down chairs implied.
Despite the clear message I was sending, the raccoons were undeterred. In fact, not only were they able to topple the chairs and barrels, but they also used some discarded cream cheese to smear on the pavement a note reading: "Ha ha! Nice try, dumbass!"
In the weeks that followed, I tried foiling the raccoons by placing atop the barrels other items: a Red Flyer wagon; a miniature, rideable dump truck; a quasi-cinderblock thing that weighed about 50 pounds. Sometimes they defeated me, but other mornings, I would rise to find that everything was still intact—which I later realized was just the raccoons' way of messing with me. The ol' Rope-a-Dope. They let me wear myself out while allowing me to think I was winning.
Their strategy worked … for, sometimes, emboldened by a false sense of security and the misguided belief that I had thwarted the raccoons once and for all, I would neglect to construct my fortress of obstacles. And it was on several of these occasions that, while Wonder Woman and I sat on the couch watching television, I heard my nemeses breaking into the unprotected barrels.
On one such occasion, I sprang from the couch, opened the back door and saw, just on the other side of the screen door, a raccoon who had ascended the back steps and was now trying to pry the lid off one of the barrels. And I figured he would head for zee hills when he saw the big human standing six inches away from him, but he just looked at me through the screen with what I believe is the closest a raccoon can come to an expression of utter boredom and total disinterest. Or maybe it was just the fact that he and his partner—who already was inside the other, still-upright barrel—were both so goddamn fat from feasting on my garbage for weeks on end that they had become overweight to the point of lethargy, and mustering up the energy to run away from the big human was just too much work for them to even consider.
As if not being scared of me wasn't obnoxious enough, the little fucker stood on his hind legs, placed his front paws on the screen, pushed his snout up under a wooden slat that runs horizontally across the middle of the door and began sniffing big raccoon lungfulls of whatever it is we'd had for dinner that evening—which apparently was so tantalizing that it caused him to begin licking the screen. I shit you not.
Well, Wonder Woman was rather freaked out, and I'd had enough of this arrogant little bastard's bullshit, because how dare he not cower in my presence? Me, the superior human? Thus, I coaxed him off the steps by pushing the door open, then ran down the steps toward him, which finally caused him to flee. His shithead partner was still in the barrel, so I kicked it over, thinking he'd immediately run out, but he was either too scared to exit, or had decided that there was no way in hell he was abandoning the buffet unless physically forced to do so—which he ultimately was when I grabbed the wheels on the bottom of the barrel and tilted the bottom end upward, causing Rocky and the trash to tumble out of the top, at which point he finally fled, too.
Over time, we had a number of similar such raccoon sightings, which we told Zan about, and he, of course, wanted to see the raccoons, so I told him I'd try to take some pictures for him the next time they decided to dine at Casa de Scratches.
During a subsequent raccoon visit, I began trying to scare the two of them away, then remembered about the pictures, dashed to get the camera, and made it back in time to capture this spectacular shot:
The next time, the raccoons were particularly brazen, and, when I advanced on them, would only retreat to the tree several feet away from the barrels, so I again grabbed the camera and proceeded to orchestrate a raccoon photo shoot for the ages. I'm telling you, it was spectacular; one of the raccoons clung to the side of the tree at eye level and got all Cindy Crawford on me, posing like he/she was America's Next Top Model.
"Zan's gonna freak when he sees these," I said to Wonder Woman, who was looking out the window while the photo shoot took place. Hell, not only did I think Zan was going to freak, but I was pretty sure National Geographic was going to use one of the shots for the cover of their next issue, complete with the headline: "The Most Breathtaking Raccoon Photos Ever Taken."
In the midst of the shoot, I attempted to view on the camera's display screen one of the pictures I'd just taken and discovered that some bumbling moron had forgotten to reinsert the compact-flash card—and I would have kicked that bumbling moron's ass had the bumbling moron in question not been me. Since kicking my own ass seemed silly, I instead retrieved the card and ran back outside, at which point I captured this beauty right here:
By this point, I'd had enough of the raccoon hijinks, and decided it was time to ratchet up my prevention methods. I ultimately settled on a pair of Rubbermaid Roughneck barrels, which I raccoon-proofed by strapping the lids down with a bungee cord that I ran from one handle to the other, like so:
The raccoons knocked them over a couple of times, but, lo and behold, could not get the lids off. Finally, I had successfully outwitted an animal whose brain is the side of an almond. Yay, me.
And that is where the story should end, except it doesn't, because a couple of weeks ago, our trash collectors, as they seem to always do, left the lids and empty barrels on the ground along the side of the road instead of back in the driveway from whence they came—which is why one of the lids was subsequently destroyed when the oil-delivery truck arrived a short while thereafter and ran it over. The word "pissed" does not begin to capture my feelings about this.
The following week, I figured I'd let the trash collectors know they had fucked up, and would ask them to not fuck up again, by taping to the damaged lid a large note, like so:
This turned out to be a wise decision, as I believe the white paper and green marker made the lid more visible to the passing cars that might otherwise have run it over after the trash collectors again left everything on the side of the road.
The same note remained in place last week, and, to their credit, the trash collectors this time did throw the lids back into the driveway, but the barrels were still sticking out into the street, and also partially blocking the entrance to the driveway.
Now, if a normal person pulled up on such a scene, they would most likely park their car in the street, move the barrels and then pull into the subsequently obstruction-free driveway. Unfortunately, I am not normal … which is I why I instead decided that I couldn't resist the challenge of successfully squeezing my car in between the barrels on my left and the snowbank on my right.
I was like a surgeon, I tell you. I slipped the car in there like a seamstress threading a needle. In fact, so snug was the fit that the driver's side of my car actually grazed one of the upside-down barrels as I passed it … which would have been simply ducky if not for the fact that, unbeknownst to me, the handle to said barrel was jutting out in the direction of my car, and snapped right the fuck off when my back tire ran over it.
What's that? You want to know if I'm aware of what a gargantuan dipshit I am, and if I realize that I got exactly what I deserved for doing such a galactically moronic thing? Why, yes … yes, I do, thank you. I do indeed.
*Yes, I'm vulgar. I use the "F" word. A lot. I know this. Wonder Woman hates it. Some of you might dislike it, also. However: You want honesty, yes? Well, in all honesty, I curse like a drunken sailor lost at sea when I get pissed off. Can't handle my cursing? Then YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!