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Animal Nitro (44 Packs)
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Journal of Nanomaterials
Volume 2014 (2014), Article ID 753853, 8 pages
Physicochemical Properties of Gold Nanostructures Deposited on Glass
1Department of Solid State Engineering, Institute of Chemical Technology Prague, 166 28 Prague, Czech Republic
2Department of Physical Chemistry, Institute of Chemical Technology Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
3Faculty of Science, J. E. Purkyně University, Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic
4New Technologies Research Centre in West Bohemian Region, University of West Bohemia, Plzeň, Czech Republic
Received 26 November 2013; Revised 17 April 2014; Accepted 17 April 2014; Published 2 June 2014
Academic Editor: Yangchuan Xing
Copyright © 2014 Zdenka Novotna et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Properties of gold films sputtered onto borosilicate glass substrate were studied. UV-Vis absorption spectra were used to investigate optical parameters. XRD analysis provided information about the gold crystalline nanostructure, the texture, and lattice parameter and biaxial tension was also determined by the XRD method. The surface morphology was examined by atomic force microscopy (AFM); chemical structure of sputtered gold nanostructures was examined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (ARXPS). The gold crystallites are preferentially [111] oriented on the sputtered samples. Gold deposition leads to dramatic changes in the surface morphology in comparison to pristine glass substrate. Oxygen is not incorporated into the gold layer during gold deposition. Experimental data on lattice parameter were also confirmed by theoretical investigations of nanoclusters using tight-binding potentials.
1. Introduction
Glass substrates have recently attracted growing interest due to the fact that they can serve as substrates for nanostructured systems with remarkable optical nonlinear properties. Glass substrates possess overall advantages as compared to many crystals or polymers. In particular, the composition of the glass can be well designed and also their fabrication is usually feasible and inexpensive [1].
Nanostructured thin metal films play nowadays quite a significant role in various material science and nanotechnology applications. In particular, a considerable attention has been drawn to the structure and properties of thin metal films deposited on nonmetal surfaces due to their attractive applications in electronic, magnetic, and optical devices [2]. Gold nanoparticles dispersed on solid surface attract great attention due to their unique optical [3], electronic [4], thermal [5], and catalytic [5, 6] properties. Gold in the form of thin films is nowadays used in a vast range of applications such as micro- and nanoelectromechanical systems (MEMS and NEMS) [7], bio- and optical sensors [8], electronic textiles [9], and bioengineering [10], as a generator of nonlinear optical properties [11], or in devices for surface-enhanced Raman scattering [12].
Modeling of gold (and other metal) crystals and nanoclusters by molecular simulation methods soon agreed on employing semiempirical tight-binding potentials, which are able to describe both lattice parameters and surface stress [13]. Particularly, molecular dynamics investigation of approximately isometric nanoclusters [14] showed that the atoms are on average closer near surface than in the bulk. Combination of the first-principle calculations and Monte Carlo method applied to gold small nanoclusters on MgO (100) surface leads to results which are in agreement with previous experimental observations [15]. Similar results were obtained also for platinum [16].
The present study is a continuation of our previous work in which we have studied various physicochemical properties of gold nanostructures deposited on glass substrate. This work is focused on wettability, surface roughness, sheet electrical resistance, and influence of these properties on adhesion and proliferation of VSMC [17]. Theoretical simulation of Au nanoclusters growth during deposition on glass substrate was performed. We performed measurement of optical properties and calculation of optical band gap (). The physical properties such as lattice parameters, intensity and orientation of the gold crystallites, and surface morphology by AFM were evaluated. Also chemical properties of deposited gold structures such as element concentration were studied by ARXPS spectra. The gold/glass structures could find applications for electronics and tissue engineering.
2. Methods
2.1. Materials and Modification
The gold layers were sputtered on 1.8 × 1.8 cm2 borosilicate microscopic glass, supplied by Glassbel Ltd., CR. The surface roughness of glass, measured over the area of 1 × 1 μm2 and calculated as an average value from five different measuring positions, was [18]. The gold sputtering was accomplished on Balzers SCD 050 device from gold target (supplied by Goodfellow Ltd., UK). The deposition conditions were DC Ar plasma, gas purity of 99.995%, sputtering times of 20 and 150 s, current of 10 to 40 mA (discharge power 3 to 15 W), total Ar pressure about 5 Pa, and the electrode distance of 50 mm. The power density of Ar plasma in our case was 0.13 W·cm−2, and the average deposition rate was 0.15 nm·s−1. After deposition the glass substrate was cleaned with methanol (p.a.) and dried in a stream of N2. The prepared samples were stored at laboratory conditions.
2.2. Theoretical Study
We also performed a simulation study using two potentials, a classical tight-binding potential [19] and a pairwise potential designed for gold simulations [20] to confirm our experimental data.
Tight-Binding Potential. The interatomic potential is composed of a sum over all atom pairs, , and a nonadditive term, , where is the distance of atoms and , , , as well as and below are parameters, and mimics the electron density: The algorithm to calculate the forces and energy proceeds in two phases [13]. In the first one the density components are calculated and in the second one the calculations of the additive and nonadditive forces are accomplished by summation over all atom pairs. From these pair and pair-like forces also the pressure tensor is calculated. Another way to calculate the pressure tensor is via the virtual volume and shape change method [21]. We used this method to test the algorithm.
Pair Potential. We also implemented a simpler effective pair potential designed for gold simulations [20, 22]: where , , , are constants. From a technical point of view this potential is simpler because the calculations can be done in one pass.
The simulations were performed in the slab geometry. A sample crystal was oriented with the (111) lattice vector perpendicular to the slab (see Figure 1). In the simulation, this vector corresponds to the -axis (or vertical direction). The system is periodic in the and (horizontal) directions. To integrate the equations of motion, we used the Verlet method with a timestep of 5 fs. The total simulation time for one sample was 7.5 ns. In order to avoid problems with slow relaxation of slower vibrational modes, we used the Andersen thermostat [21] with a relaxation time of 1 ps. Atoms are randomly visited by a demon changing their velocity to a new one drawn from the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution. Components of the pressure tensor in the and directions were independently kept constant by a Berendsen-type barostat [21] with a time constant of 3 ps (based on the bulk modulus of gold 180 GPa).
The slab geometry does not contain any substrate-gold nanolayer interaction, which could possibly affect the layer thickness. In principle, one should employ an atomistic model of a substrate, which can be rough and in turn study the whole range of relaxation processes occurring during the deposition. However, such a study lies outside of the scope of this work. The contact angles of gold alloys on silica and other substrates are around 140° [23], suggesting relatively weak substrate-gold forces. As a simple model of this interaction, we considered an ideally smooth wall, composed of uniformly dispersed atoms in the half-space. To build the model, we started from the gold-water oxygen interaction, which was approximated by the Lennard-Jones 12-6 potential in [24]. The relatively high value of the energy parameter (with respect to the oxygen-oxygen term of 0.15–0.2 kcal/mol in common water models) takes effectively into account the interaction of the water dipole moment with metal by the mechanism of charge inversion. The silica unit of O-Si-O has several times higher dipole moment than a water molecule; we thus estimate the parameter of the substrate (borosilicate glass) as three times that of water. In addition, we increase the atom size to 3.85 Å to take into account the bigger silicon atom (3.6 Å [24] scaled by the cube root of the Si : O diameter ratio taken from the UFF [25]). The final gold-substrate interaction energy is integrated over and glass density to yield the potential of the form , where Å9 and Å3, and is the distance of a gold atom from the wall. The lattice constant (distance of layers) in the -direction was determined from the -density profile with the exception of two layers from both sides. The peaks of individual gold layers in the slab geometry are clearly discernible because the center of mass of the slab in the -direction is fixed. The positions of the layers are calculated from the centers of mass of the peaks. In some cases of the nanolayer on a substrate, the peaks overlap; the individual peaks are then separated by minima between peaks on a smoothed -density profile. The lattice constant in the and directions was determined from averaged and sizes of the periodic box. The reference bulk lattice constant was obtained from a standard simulation in a cubic periodic box. Both used potentials exhibit a fast exponential decay of the potential with distance and therefore the simulation box size in the periodic direction may be short. We used a layer of 56 atoms (see Figure 1) in most simulations. For testing purposes we also tried a layer of 90 atoms and did not observe any difference.
2.3. Measurement Techniques
UV-Vis absorption spectra were measured using PerkinElmer's Lambda 25 UV-Vis-NIR spectrometer in the spectral range of 300–900 nm at scanning rate of 240 nm·min−1 and a data collection interval of 1 nm. A pristine glass slide was used for background measurement. The typical data uncertainty obtained under this arrangement is below ±5%. Measured spectra were also interpreted in the frame of Tauc's model [26] using Tauc's equation: where is the absorption coefficient of the substance, is the substance optical band gap, is the parameter that gives the type of electron transition, and factor depends on the transition probability and can be assumed to be constant within the optical frequency range [26]. The optical band gap width, , of layers was assessed from the linear part of plot ( versus ). Indirect transitions cannot be excluded in these layers, and therefore were used in the calculation.
XRD analysis was performed by the automatic powder diffractometer Panalytical X'Pert PRO, equipped with ultrafast semiconductor detector PIXcel, using copper X-ray tube (). Measurements were performed in a symmetric Bragg-Brentano geometry. Diffraction patterns were registered in the angular range . Lattice parameter of cubic face centered lattice of Au was calculated from diffraction lines location and their intensities, using the Rietveld method.
The surface morphology of glass and gold sputtered glass was examined by atomic force microscopy (AFM) using VEECO CP II setup; surface roughness () was measured in tapping mode with silicon P-doped probes RTESPA-CP, with the spring constant 0.9 Nm−1. By the repeated measurements of the same region (1 × 1 μm2 in area), we prove that the surface morphology did not change after three consecutive scans.
The chemical structure of gold layers was determined from X-ray photoelectron spectra (ARXPS), measured on Omicron Nanotechnology ESCAProbeP spectrometer. X-ray source was monochromated at 1486.7 eV and area 2 × 3 mm2 was exposed and analyzed. Spectra were measured stepwise with a step in binding energy 0.05 eV; the take-off angle was 0° and 81°, respectively, according to surface normal. The spectra evaluation was carried out by CasaXPS software. Before the measurement the samples were stored under standard laboratory conditions.
3. Results and Discussion
Physicochemical properties of gold nanostructures deposited on glass were studied by several analytical techniques to obtain complex results about studied materials and tested experimental conditions.
UV-Vis spectra of Au/glass sputtered for the sputtering times 20 and 150 s using currents ranging from 10 to 40 mA are shown in Figure 2. The thickness (in nm) of the deposited nanostructures which was measured by the scratch test method with AFM [17] is presented in Figure 2. According to expectations, an increase in absorbance of the nanostructures with increasing thickness of the deposited Au layer is observed [27]. The spectra show absorption minimum at ca 500 nm which exhibits a blue shift with increasing thickness of the Au layer. Dependence of the optical absorption of island-like noncontinuous Au structures on the nanocluster density has been described in [28]. The width of the optical band gap was calculated from the UV-Vis spectra using the Tauc equation [26]. The thickness of prepared gold layers varies from 1.0 nm (20 s and 10 mA) to 60.4 nm (150 s and 40 mA) and the calculated lies between 0.5 and 1.8 eV.
The calculated values of the are comparable with data published earlier [29]. The calculated values indicate that the decreases with increased power and the time of sputtering and this trend corresponds to those in the values of the electrical sheet resistance [17].
XRD-diffraction patterns of the gold nanostructures on the glass by different times and sputtering currents are shown in Figure 3. The intensity of gold diffraction lines is an increasing function of the sputtering time and current. The intensity increase is connected with ever increasing thickness of the gold structures. For currents 10 and 20 mA and the sputtering time 20 s the thickness of the gold nanostructures is low and therefore an amorphous line of glass (SiO2) with a high width is noticeable in the diffraction pattern. Signal of gold nanostructure in the diffraction pattern becomes observable for sputtering currents above 30 mA. The gold sputtering on glass substrate leads to formation of polycrystals with a preferential orientation in the direction. This is explained by the fact that isolated Au nanoclusters try to minimize their free energy during their growth. This preferential orientation is observed on all samples regardless of sputtering time and current.
Lattice parameter was calculated from diffraction lines parameters using the Rietveld method. It has been published elsewhere [30, 31] that the lattice parameter of metals prepared in the form of a thin layer by a physical vapor deposition is not a material constant but depends strongly on the layer thickness. Figure 4 shows the dependence of the lattice parameter and biaxial tension of the gold films on the sputtering time for different sputtering currents derived from the present XRD measurements. The thickness of the deposited gold film is an increasing function of the sputtering time and the discharge current [17]. Monotonous decrease of the lattice parameter with increasing layer thickness is observed. A possible explanation is provided below. Alternatively, this phenomenon may be caused by an increase of the number of isolated gold nanoclusters [26, 32], which aggregate and "push" each other, which in turn increases the biaxial tension. On the other hand, the lattice parameter decreases due to internal stress relaxation during nanocluster growth. This result is in good agreement with those of previous studies [30, 31, 33, 34].
The results of calculations of the lattice parameters are summarized in Figure 5. We can see that the simpler pairwise-additive Erkoc potential predicts that a slab shrinks vertically and expands horizontally. In contrast, the tight-binding potential by Cleri and Rosato predicts horizontal shrinking but expands the interlayer distance in the vertical direction. The latter result is in agreement with our experiment (see above) and with our previous study [33] as well. These results can be qualitatively explained as follows.
First, let us place an atom interacting only by pair forces (Erkoc potential) close to the surface. Because there are more neighbouring atoms in the bulk, the atom is attracted towards the slab centre. The interlayer distance in the vertical direction therefore decreases, in disagreement with experiment. However, there is a tendency to keep volume constant (because of repulsive forces); therefore, the slab has to expand in the horizontal direction. In fact it expands too much and the density of the surface slab becomes lower than that in the bulk.
Electrons in metals can be considered as freely moving in the averaged field of nuclei (more precisely, nuclei with nonvalence electrons). Since the distance of energy levels decreases if more space is available for the electrons, the electron cloud extends slightly out of the metal surface. Because of the nucleus-electron attraction, the nuclei are pulled out of the surface as well, and therefore the slab distance (in the vertical direction) increases, in agreement with experiment. Similarly, the metal slab shrinks in the horizontal direction to (partly) compensate for the vertical expansion; the density of the slab is higher than in the bulk. From the modelling point of view, these phenomena are described by the nonadditive tight-binding types of potentials, as the Sutton-Chen potential used in this work. A detailed analysis of the slab structure is presented in Figure 6 for a slab of 840 atoms and 15 layers. The blue points correspond to the respective distances between (111) layers. Also shown is the bulk value, 3−1/2, where is the cell size. The red dotted line is the "equivalent" horizontal value, namely, 3−1/2−1/2, where is the area per one atom in a horizontal layer. It can be seen that the outermost layers are most affected and a neat expansion effect in the vertical direction persists inside the slab.
It can be also seen in Figure 5 that the expansion factors are not affected by a substrate within the scale of the graph. Detailed analysis reveals a lower precision of the results, especially in the vertical direction, because the whole nanolayer jumps slightly and randomly above the wall and the peaks of gold layers in the -density profile are asymmetric and sometimes they even overlap. A presence of the substrate slightly decreases the distances between layers for both interatomic potentials; thus, the vertical expansion factor decreases by about 1-2 × 10−5 for thinner slabs (), whereas the horizontal expansion factor increases by approximately the same value. To summarize, even if the substrate-metal interactions were seriously underestimated (e.g., because the atomistic structure was neglected), we cannot expect any significant influence of the substrate on the interlayer distances.
Surface morphology and roughness () of gold nanostructures deposited on the glass substrate were studied by the AFM method and the results are shown in Figure 7. On the 3D AFM scans, a dramatic change in the morphology of the surface with increasing sputtering times and discharge currents is observed. It is apparent that, in the initial phase of the deposition (20 s and 20 mA), gold nanoclusters are formed. After 150 s sputtering time at the same current, electrically continuous gold film is formed [17] with higher surface roughness (). After that, during ongoing deposition, interconnections between nanoclusters are formed and the deposited layers become homogeneous and uniform. Gold nanoclusters are formed on the homogeneous layer with increasing discharge current (20 s and 40 mA). Surface becomes fully covered by a thin nanolayer of gold after a longer period of deposition (150 s and 40 mA) in accordance with the results of [17]. It was published earlier that, under these experimental conditions, an electrically conductive layer was formed on a sample deposited for a sputtering time of 150 s with the use of a current of 40 mA [35].
Results of XPS analyses of gold layers sputtered on glass substrate are presented in Table 1. In XPS spectra traces of Ti, Zn, K, and Na from underlying glass are observed. Rather surprising is the presence of carbon (54 at % in this case) which may completely be attributed to contamination with hydrocarbons and other carbon-rich compounds from ambient atmosphere [36]. As could be expected, the Si signal is a decreasing function of the increasing thickness of gold layer. From XPS measurement under the angle 0° (analysis depth of 6–8 gold layers) one can see that the gold concentration increases with increasing sputtering time and current. When the sputtering time is increased from 20 to 150 s the gold concentration increases from 22.5 to 51.9% and from 34.7 to 42.8% for 20 and 40 mA discharge currents, respectively. On the other hand, the XPS measurement under the angle 81° (1-2 gold layers analysis depth) and the gold concentration on the sample sputtered at 20 mA current decreases with increasing deposition time. The effect may be due to the presence of gold islands.
From lattice parameter, biaxial tension, and optical bang gap measurements it can be concluded that with increasing time and deposition current Au nanoclusters are gradually forming electrically and later materially continuous films. The results from simulations support the conclusions of XRD analysis. XPS measurements show decreasing concentration of Si and increasing concentration of Au which is again connected to formation of continuous Au layer. This process of transition from isolated nanoclusters to continuous films was directly observed using AFM methods.
4. Conclusions
Gold nanostructured layers of different thickness and morphology were prepared by sputtering on the surface of glass substrate. The properties of the layers were examined by different techniques. With increasing deposition time and discharge current the UV-Vis absorption increases and the optical band gap decreases. According to XRD patterns, the gold sputtering leads to formation of polycrystals with a preferential orientation in the direction, which is supported by the results of simulated Au layer growth. The changes in the lattice parameters of gold nanostructures were observed too in accordance with theoretical estimates done using the tight-binding potential by Cleri and Rosato. Gold sputtering changes the surface morphology dramatically and the transition from island-like structure in initial phase of deposition to continuous gold coverage in the later one is observed by AFM method. By XPS method an increase of surface gold concentration with increasing sputtering time was proved. At the same time the observed Si signal decreases as the gold coverage of underlying glass substrate becomes more complete. The gold/glass structures could find applications in, for example, biosensors, electronics, and tissue engineering. While for tissue engineering Au nanocluster structure is often desirable, applications regarding electronics demand continuous structures. Therefore, in regard to future application, deposition conditions should be considered carefully.
Conflict of Interests
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper.
This work was supported by the GACR under Project 108/12/G108 and CENTEM Project (Jan Riha, CZ.1.05/2.1.00/03.0088) cofunded by the ERDF as part of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports OP RDI Program.
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text:
Kern River Gas Transmission Company
Second Revised Volume No. 1
Contents / Previous / Next / Main Tariff Index
Effective Date: 10/01/2002, Docket: RP02-482-000, Status: Effective
Second Revised Sheet No. 829 Second Revised Sheet No. 829 : Superseded
Superseding: First Revised Sheet No. 829
Kern River Firm Transportation Services
ARTICLE 5 - CAPACITY RELEASE PROGRAM (Continued)
5.6 Determination of Successful Bidder. (Continued)
(c) If only one Bidder has submitted a bid which reflects the highest
value, then the Release shall be awarded to that Bidder, subject
to any Prearranged Bidder's exercise of its right of first refusal
as set forth above.
(d) If two or more Bidders have submitted bids which each reflect the
highest value, then, subject to any Prearranged Bidder's exercise
of its right of first refusal, the Release will be awarded on the
basis of a lottery which is limited to such Bidders. The winner
of the lottery shall be awarded the Release to the extent of the
DMDQ for which it has submitted a bid. Transporter will conduct
the lottery in an objective, nondiscriminatory manner.
Transporter's calculation of the applied methodology and lottery
shall result in only one successful Bidder per Release Request.
(e) Transporter shall post on its Designated Site for a period of ten
Business Days the terms of the successful bid and the identity of
the successful Bidder in accordance with the relevant periods of
time set forth in Article 5.8 of this Rate Schedule.
5.7 Exhibit "RP" and Exhibit "RS".
(a) Prior to the date of commencement of the Release Term as specified
by the successful Bidder, Transporter shall prepare and transmit
to the successful Bidder an initial Exhibit "RP" to its Released
Transportation Service Agreement in the form set forth in this
Tariff stating all applicable terms and conditions of the Release,
including without limitation the DMDQ and associated TMDQ, Release
Reservation Rate, Release Reservation Surcharges, Total Release
Reservation Charge, usage rate, volumetric surcharges, any and all
other applicable rates, charges and surcharges, Release Term,
Receipt Point Entitlements at any and all of the Replacement
Shipper's specified Primary Receipt Points and Delivery Point
Entitlements at any and all of the Replacement Shipper's specified
Primary Delivery Points. An initial Exhibit "RS" in the form set
forth in this


text: If you aren't completely sick of hearing about Will and Kate's Royal wedding yet…then here is yet one more item to show your English pride. Knomo has introduced a uniquely designed laptop sleeve to celebrate the forthcoming Royal Wedding in truly eccentric British style! This laptop sleeve will hold a 13″ laptop and is bejeweled in front with a Union Jack pattern and satin-fabric back in navy color. It has a zipped pocket with space for change and room for tickets inside a slip pocket. A neat standard feature is a Knomo tracker tag that helps you reunite you with your bag should you misplace it. The Knomo Union Jack laptop Sleeve retails for £130 ($211 USD)


text:
The Movie:
Also known as Apocalypse Z and produced by none other than Uwe Boll, 2013's Zombie Massacre begins when a working class woman somewhere in an Eastern European factory heads home for the day. When she gets to her rundown apartment she has to tend to her father, an elderly man who appears to be terminally ill. She hears an explosion and heads to her balcony to check it out when she gets covered in a gooey substance that rains down from above. Faster than you can say Romero she turns into a snarling zombie, her eyes blood red and her hunger painfully obvious.
From this admittedly impressive opening, the movie segues to a group of American military types who answer to the President (Uwe Boll, who is actually pretty funny here in small doses), all of whom speak with obvious German accents. They're sifting through folders and looking at pictures of different agents of some sort. Their discussion clues us in to the fact that what happened in Eastern Europe was the result of a top secret American military experiment gone horribly awry. Apparently that women in the opening scene wasn't the only one who turned into a zombie and in order to clean up their mess, they're planning to basically wipe that portion of Europe off the map. Enter super patriot Jack Stone (Christian Boeving), an Iraq War veteran who the big wigs free from his stint in prison in order to coerce him to accept their mission. If he agrees, they'll let him see his kid again, if not, it's back to the clink. So of course, Jack is on board. They team him up with a technical wizard/explosives guy named John 'Mad Dog' McKellen (Mike Mitchell), a sharpshooter named Dragan Ilic (Daniel Vivian) and a sexy Irish lady named Eden Shizuka (Tara Cardinal) who has some sort of martial arts training that may or may not be kung-fu. She also uses swords. They get dropped off right in the thick of zombie central and have to plant the bomb that will make this problem go away before they're devoured themselves by the hordes of shambling undead.
There's a reasonable amount of gore here and the zombie makup effects are done fairly well. Some decent scenes of splatter and carnage are found in the movie and at ninety minutes it doesn't overstay its welcome. Let's see, what else can we say here that's not too nasty… the movie is reasonably well shot. The Eastern European locations look desolate enough that they seem fitting for a zombie apocalypse scenario to play out on and the cinematography is at least in focus and competent. Aside from that though… this is pretty bottom of the barrel stuff. The characters are ridiculous clichés, from the scenes where we first meet Jack Stone as he's pumping iron in prison to the scenes where Mad Dog goes all MacGuyver on a situation to solve his problems with bomb wizardry. The explosions? Bad CGI, really bad, painfully obvious CGI. They never convince, they don't even try.
Lots of tough talk here, delivered by bad actors who seem to specialize in stilted dialogue and none of whom are convincing as 'Americans' (you get the impression that this is on purpose and that the movie is fairly self aware in that regard but as it plays everything else fairly straight, this seems out of place). You want a scene where one of the troop gets infected and Jack has to begrudgingly put him out of his misery? You got it, but let's make sure he has a heartfelt moment and expresses his brotherly love for this guy before he pops him in the head just as the zombie plague is starting to take hold of him. What about some traitorous government types who don't want to deliver on their promise to Jack? Yeah, those guys are here too, which of course means he's going to have to do things on his own terms to make it out alive and see his kid again. You can be damn sure he'll do it too, because his name is Jack Stone and he's an ex-soldier who went to jail. That's what guys with names like Jack Stone who are ex-soldiers who went to jail do. They make it on their own terms. This is pretty much an indisputable fact in the realm of action and horror B films. Oh and if you were wondering since most movies like this have a scientist doctor type involved who may have a cure for all this, if there was one of those here? Yep, we get that too. We meet him in his lab where he experiments on rats and speaks scientific gobblygook to the top brass before we witness the true nature of his work.
Yeah, it's gory and we get a bit of topless nudity and a monster towards the end (always a good thing), but it's so completely phoned in and by the numbers that the bloodshed and carnage just cannot save it.The Blu-ray:
Zombie Massacre arrives on Blu-ray in a 2.35.1 widescreen presentation with AVC encoding in 1080p high definition. The locations look appropriately grey and have that sort of hazy industrial complex look about them, which makes sense, but a lot of times the colors look intentionally unsaturated, a stylistic choice, no doubt. That being said, don't expect colors to pop the way brighter and more playful looking movies can on Blu-ray. Skin tones are good, they look pretty natural, while black levels remain dark and quite strong. There aren't any compression artifacts or edge enhancement issues of note and all in all, the movie looks very good here in high definition, despite a few moments that show some banding and aliasing.Sound:
The English language DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix on this release is pretty good, really. The lower end is nice and strong and a few of the more action intensive scenes make good use of the surround channels by toying with gunshots and guttural zombie noises. Otherwise, dialogue is well balanced and mixed in nicely ensuring that you won't have any trouble understanding the performers while the score has some nice liveliness to it. Not much to complain about here, really, this aggressive mix suits the movie well and sounds just fine. Subtitles are provided in English SDH and Spanish. An optional Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound mix is also included as are English closed captions.Extras:
The main extra on the disc is a forty-one minute long featurette entitled Superfreak: The Making Of Zombie Massacre that is, as you could probably guess, a look at the making of the movie. Much of this supplement's running time is made up of self-congratulatory comments from various parties involved with the film but some of the behind the scenes clips are interesting enough. There's some focus on the makeup and effects work as well as one some of the stunts and locations used that might tickle the funny bone of BTS junkies.
Outside of that? A minutes worth of storyboards, a storyboarded version of a prologue that runs two minutes, a teaser for the feature and a full length trailer for the feature. Menus and chapter stops are also included and aside from the full length trailer, all of the supplements are in standard definition.Final Thoughts:
Although eOne's presentation is fine, the fact of the matter is that Zombie Massacre really isn't a very good movie. The transfer is nice, the audio is good and the featurette is watchable enough but the movie itself? It's contrived, unoriginal and just not very well made. The action scenes can't save it, the horror isn't horrifying and the storyline riddled with one cliché after the next. Skip it.


text:
Comment on "Rethinking America's Illegal Drug Policy"
In: Controlling Crime: Strategies and Tradeoffs
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- Kesten Green & J. Scott Armstrong & Andreas Graefe, 2007.
"Methods to Elicit Forecasts from Groups: Delphi and Prediction Markets Compared,"
Foresight: The International Journal of Applied Forecasting,
International Institute of Forecasters, issue 8, pages 17-20, Fall.
- Green, Kesten C. & Armstrong, J. Scott & Graefe, Andreas, 2007. "Methods to Elicit Forecasts from Groups: Delphi and Prediction Markets Compared," MPRA Paper 4663, University Library of Munich, Germany.
- Christopher Carpenter & Carlos Dobkin, 2009. "The Effect of Alcohol Consumption on Mortality: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from the Minimum Drinking Age," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(1), pages 164-182, January.
- Christopher Carpenter & Carlos Dobkin, 2007. "The Effect of Alcohol Consumption on Mortality: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from the Minimum Drinking Age," NBER Working Papers 13374, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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text:
H-S Precision Remington 700 Fitment Issue...
View Single Post
February 28, 2013, 12:38 PM
Senior Member
Join Date: September 26, 2004
Posts: 449
The HS Precision bedding blocks are extruded, and not very precise in my opinion. It does not surprise me that your trigger doesn't appear centered.
The trouble is that the receiver will find a nominal center in the vertex of the V-shaped bedding block, but this has little to do with the direction the barrel, barrel channel, and most of the rest of the gun are pointing.
Most of your $200 stocks with bedding blocks exhibit this trait to some degree. You just got extra unlucky with the fit.
Personally, I don't view any separately-purchased stock with a bedding block to be 100% ready to go "out of the box" without some type of fitting or customization.
If I really had my druthers I'd avoid buying a pre-bedded stock at all, instead opting for a less expensive gunsmith-fit stock and spend the difference on professional hand fitting.
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text:
Denise Civiletti and Peter Blasl, publishers of RiverheadLOCAL.com, are pleased to announce the coming launch of a new online-only news website for the North Fork: SoutholdLOCAL.com.
Southold resident Lisa Finn is taking the helm as editor of the new website, which will provide fresh local news coverage for the communities of the North Fork.
Finn, whose career in journalism spans 27 years, has been an editor for Patch.com since March 2012, overseeing North Fork Patch and Riverhead Patch.
She is the former associate editor of the Mattituck-based Traveler-Watchman newspaper and has worked as a reporter for The Independent and The Southampton Press. Prior to reporting for local newspapers, she was editorial director of a NYC media company, where she oversaw the publication of nine women's magazines.
Finn has a passion for community journalism and loves the immediacy of reporting for digital media.
"I'm excited to be joining a local media company whose ideals and values align perfectly with my own," Finn said.
"Lisa will bring to SoutholdLOCAL.com what we've brought to RiverheadLOCAL.com — a truly local perspective on news, events and activities in the town she lives in, a place she loves," Blasl said.
"She's a talented writer with a heart for the people whose stories she loves to tell. She totally gets what community journalism is all about," Civiletti said. "It's all about community," she said. "That's why RiverheadLOCAL.com was so immediately embraced by the Riverhead community and why it's had such phenomenal success since we launched it in 2010," she said.
The Riverhead news start-up had nearly 1.5 million visits last year, serving more than 3 million pageviews to 423,779 unique visitors, according to Google Analytics.
"With Lisa overseeing the new site, we will bring the same brand of fresh, authentically local, no-nonsense, comprehensive coverage to Southold as we've delivered for Riverhead," Civiletti said.
"We already have a good following across the North Fork with RiverheadLOCAL. Readers and businesses alike have asked us time and again when we're going to start a site for Southold," Blasl said. "Now, the time is right."
SoutholdLOCAL.com will debut before the end of March, according to the publishers.
For news tips, story ideas, questions or comments, e-mail Lisa Finn: [email protected]
To learn about advertising opportunities, call Peter Blasl at 866-727-LOCAL.


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The Arri 525905 Lamphead Case is a custom foam padded ATA transit case made to carry and ship an Arri 2500W Compact HMI Head. The case is made from ABS plastic laminated over 1/4" plywood.
Key features:
Carrying options:
Recessed steel handle
Compatible with
Arri 2500W Compact HMI Head with 10" Fresnel lens
Arri 2500W Compact Fresnel, Theatre model
|Exterior Dimensions
|Not specified by manufacturer
|Interior Dimensions
|19.5 x 28.75 x 15" (49.5 x 73 x 38.1 cm) (WxHxD) 1
|Exterior: Black ABS plastic laminated over 1/4" thick plywood


text:
Here we go again for thread #3 for this December.
We've had 2 nights of covering our tender perrenials here. I believe many pulled right through.
It's 10PM and ;
Scattered Clouds
Humidity: 75%
Dew Point: 46 �F / 8 �C
Wind: 0.0 mph / 0 km/h
Wind Gust: 3.1 mph / 4 km/h
Pressure: 30.27 in / 1024.9 hPa (Steady)
Visibility: 7.0 miles / 11.3 kilometers
Here's Christmas at the Toledo Zoo.
(From last Christmas)
December Daily Weather III, We Came upon a midnight clear.
Here we go again for thread #3 for this December.
Good morning!
Thanks Sidney :-) That's a very festive photo :-) Glad your plants made it through the frosty spell!
It's raining and it�s windy ��. I�m starting to sound like a broken record. lol It�s 46�F, 20 mph gusting to 31 mph from the south, just a light breeze compared to the past week. lol
Thanks Sharon, Marylyn, Adina and marsue.
Marsue � the divinity sounds divine ���. yes, please, if you ever track down the recipe ;-)
Marylyn � those littlest pet shop pets are just about the only thing they can think of these days. Selma doesn�t want anything else for Christmas! lol They�re cute but I�d have thought she�d be too old for them ��. seems it�s the latest craze in her class. Are your girls hooked too?
Kiska � no actually he�s never woken us up ��. seems he�s always been very well behaved at our house ;-) lol. Very cool pic of the vaporized hot water :-)
Kelli � that�s the best time to get rain ��. I�ve often wished it could be like that here ;-) lol Very beautiful photo. The hills look so naked, it�s hard to believe the grass will ever turn green, it looks dead. Is it an annual type of grass?
Dyson � wonderful news! :-)
Nr. 8 is Skyrg�mur.
Unlike Askasleikir who�ll eat anything, he�s very particular. He likes skyr,(an Icelandic dairy product) and that�s about all he�ll eat. If he finds a skyr container, he�ll break it open with his fist and gobble it up until it�s finished or he can�t eat anymore. After that he won�t be going anywhere in a hurry because he�ll be unable to move and just whine and grunt and feel very sorry for himself. He�s a real hog ;-) lol
He brought the girls nail polish and lip gloss.
A note about skyr (pron. skir, �i� like �in�). It�s a very thick yogurt type of product that�s practically fat free and rich in protein. If you�re ever in New York City and would like to try it, there are a few specialty cheese stores that stock skyr that�s produced locally by an Icelander that lives there. The product is called Siggi�s Skyr.
Now I think I�ll go and bake something �� ;-)
Hope you all have a great day!
Sidney � Great start picture!
Deb � Thanks! Is the elephant ear going to make it?
Kelli � That�s funny! Here I was thinking you finally received a lot of rain and, well you did, but you didn�t really. Any rain is good at this point. Interesting picture. I amazes me at how dry it is there. I do see some green though. Will the hills be green in the summer?
Ric � Our weather changes daily too. �They� are saying we�ll be in the low seventies heading into Christmas. I�m hoping �they� are wrong!
Rann � I had to look up �littlest pet shop pets�. They are so cute! Do you ever leave a container or ladle lying around for the girls to find when they wake up? �Oh look Skyrg�mur was here!� LOL! Skyr sounds delicious and healthy! Yes, I�m going to have to order some Skyr and have it sent to Florida! I�ve already started looking it up! LOL!
Mostly Cloudy
Humidity: 91%
Dew Point: 44 �F / 7 �C
Wind: 0.0 mph / 0 km/h
Wind Gust: 0.0 mph / 0 km/h
Pressure: 30.27 in / 1024.9 hPa (Steady)
Visibility: 10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers
UV: 0 out of 16
Clouds: Scattered Clouds 4000 ft / 1219 m
Mostly Cloudy 20000 ft / 6096 m
Partly cloudy. Patchy fog early in the morning. High 66. West winds 5 to 10 mph.
All baking is complete. I'll take a day or 2 off then begin the biscotti - that's so easy to make which is the reason I leave it for last.
Sylvester was "helping" me wrap presents last night.
34�(F), should get a small amount of precipitation so I checked the level on the gauge for reference, it is currently at 2.4 in.
Reporting Station: KROA
Relative Humidity: 56%
Wind: 0� (N) at 0mph
Gusts: 0mph
Pressure: 30.18in
Yesterday's Precip: in
Yesterday's Low Temp: 22�F
Yesterday's High Temp: 46�F
Dew Point: 19�
Visibility: 10mi
Ceiling: 7000ft
Heat Index: 33�
Wind Chill: 33�
6hr Precip: in
6hr Low Temp: 34�F
6hr High Temp: 40�F
Currently: 25�F Partly Cloudy
Currently: -3�C Partly Cloudy
Wind: South at 5 MPH
Humidity: 85%
Dewpoint: 21�F
Barometer: 30.08 inches and falling
Wind Chill: 19�F
Wind: South at 8 KPH
Humidity: 85%
Dewpoint: -6�C
Barometer: 1018 millibars and falling
Wind Chill: -7� C
Love that beginning photo, Sydney!
Deb--that EE is so cold it turned blue! LOL
Dyson, I am happy that you have been cleared to go back to work after the first of the year. Enjoy the rest of your "vacation".
Sharon, cats are so nosy! That is such a cute photo!
Rann, my sister has out-of-town company until after Christmas but once things are settled down around her house I will ask her to find the divinity recipe for me. I seem to have misplaced some of my more treasured recipes when we moved last year. I thought I had them on diskettes but couldn't find them when I looked.
I know the little girls are enjoying the nail polish and lip gloss from the latest of the trolls. My g'daughters always have a great time polishing their nails!
Sharon, you are complaining about 70* weather?
Pepper, do you still have snow and ice on the streets up there in KC?
BTW, I couldn't figure out how to send a photo from my email over to this thread. I wanted to show you all the photos from the ice storm that DH's cousin sent us. Can anybody help me with this?
Current conditions as of 7:55 am CST
Fog (Make that FOG in capitol letters--I can hardly see the houses across the street even now at 9 a.m.!!)
Feels Like: 41�
Barometer: 30.17 in and steady
Humidity: 99%
Visibility: 0.12 mi
Dewpoint: 41�
Wind: Calm
Sunrise: 7:11 am
Sunset: 4:59 pm
Oh, BTW, here's a little greeting for all of you. Mr. Kodak (Mark) sent this to all of us on the Mid-South Forum and I thought I would pass it along to all of you. :o))
Well here in Lebanon, OR it is raining started super hard about 2:00AM this morning and it is still going strong.
We really do not NEED any more rain in OREGON...anyone want it we will all gladly do a rain get the heck away dance and send it to you.
Merry Christmas to one and all.
Save her picture to your PC or other "saving device" and then browse to that saving device or for me I save in "My Pictures" and retrieve from there.
Dyson so glad you are on vacation. That means you still have a job.
Here it's;
Partly Cloudy
Humidity: 64%
Dew Point: 50 �F / 10 �C
Wind: 0.0 mph / 0 km/h
Wind Gust: 2.7 mph / 4 km/h
Pressure: 30.27 in / 1024.9 hPa (Rising)
Lovely day for tying up loose ends.
LOL and welcome D.
Patchy fog in the morning. Partly cloudy in the morning becoming mostly sunny in the afternoon. Highs 5 below to 5 above zero. Northwest wind to 10 mph.
Mostly clear. Patchy fog after midnight. Lows 10 below to 20 below zero. Light winds.
Sugarweed, how pretty; looks like a magical place to visit.
Nice seeing what's been happening since last night; it's now 9am;
Sunrise: 10:14 Sunset: 3:32 Loss of 23 seconds.
Will be back later today...
Adina, I love the lights at your park--so pretty! Your friend's cactus is beautiful and at least your cactus is trying to make a bloom in time for Christmas! My cactus has about 2 dozen buds on it but none fully opened yet.
Kiska, just think--only a couple more days and you can start adding minutes to your day instead of taking away. Right?
Sidney, I tried saving the photo but it didn't work. Guess I need to try again. Thanks for the input.
Dee, I think Dyson and Deb would just love to have some of your rain. I am going to try to send them some of mine, too, as we have more rain predicted for tonight and tomorrow.
Sydney: Love those froggy lights! Very cute.
Dyson: Hoping you get some measurable wet stuff.
Sharon: No, my EE won't be back til spring now. The 3-nights freeze did it in (along with my big old Musa). I didn't think it would be possible to wrap presents with a cat in the room! LOL. Hope you get the Christmas temps you want. (Just keep that cold air down there, thank you!)
Marsue: I love that version of White Christmas. I have it on an album somewhere. One of the old Motown groups if I remember. Cute animation - love the 4th reindeer!
Dee: OH yeah! Send it! Start dancin. :)
Adina: The park lights are nice. I love the dangling lights in the trees.
Rann: I thihnk Skyrgamur needs some Pepto! LOL.
Currently 60F and clear...again, but no freeze tonight. Low of 36F predicted.
High on Christmas is expected to be high 60s, but first I'm celebrating the SOLSTICE in only 2 more days!! And even better, we have a 50% chance of rain the same day. Hope springs eternal!'
Lovely sky this morning,
Well the day before the day before Christmas is now scheduled to be white....
As I said the weather forecast around here changes like the tide.....
What was a 28� and snowy Christmas Eve is now ..... 39� and Cloudy....... lol!
As Sturday is forecast to be 59� ....I just might take my shorts up....
We got some more rain yesterday evening and overnight. Over the two days we got almost an inch of rain.
Updated: 2:51 PM PST on December 19, 2007
Observed at: Van Nuys, California
Elevation: 797 ft / 243 m
Mostly Cloudy
Humidity: 81%
Dew Point: 52 �F / 11 �C
Wind: 8 mph / 13 km/h / 3.6 m/s from the South
We went to the Arboretum today. Some people were filming there (movie, t.v. show, or commercial) and they had a live lion.
Rann, you asked about the grass. The grasslands out here consist mainly of wild oats and mustard, which are both non-native annuals. There is also a smattering of other native and non-native annuals. They all die out in the summer. In general, if there has been a decent amount of rain, the grasslands turn green in January and stay fairly green into June. Last year was one of the driest years on record so we didn't have much extensive green. Here is a fairly good representative picture taken probably around 1990. This area is a mile or two south of where I was the other day. That box canyon that we walked into is probably just on the other side of the ridge in the background.
Marsue, we still have ice and snow here though it turns into slush during the day and freezes again at night. The main roads are clear and most back roads are somewhat clear. Mine still has icy spots due to heavy shade but only a few. Our parking area at work is still icy and a coworker can't keep his car in place there anymore due to the ice. It slides down a bunch everyday. lol. I told him he needs to learn to park. lol
Currently: 41�F Cloudy
Currently: 5�C Cloudy
Wind: Southeast at 12 MPH
Humidity: 70%
Dewpoint: 32�F
Barometer: 29.92 inches and falling
Wind Chill: 34�F
Wind: Southeast at 19 KPH
Humidity: 70%
Dewpoint: 0�C
Barometer: 1013 millibars and falling
Wind Chill: 1� C
Love that picture Kelli
minus 2*F; supposed to get colder tonight.
marsue~~the coming longer days are indeed very near. A turning point and is considered the middle of winter.
rann~~love the photo, showed my DH and he liked it, too. When he asked a few days ago where I want to go for next year's anniversary, I said "Iceland"...kinda took him by surprise, I think:))
Kelli~~what a pretty location; the photo is beautiful; glad you had some rain.
ric~~what a change in the forecast; perhaps they're still wrong and you'll have a white Christmas after all.
Deb~~I too, hope for rain for you and that area~~the sky is gorgeous.
adina~~looks so pretty there at the park; at least your cactus is trying.
pepper23~~wow~~still a mess and more winter to come....
Snowdrifts on a nearby lake today.
Yep, more weather to come and possibly a white Christmas!
TRust me I wish I could send our rain to all the areas that have drought...we would gladly. We are about 10" over normal to date since 10-1 this year...so you know we have received alot.
Love the Alaska pictures!
I will try to get out if not raining and post a picture of something out there
Hang in there guys.
Mornin' All!
Sidney, Great pic for the thread!
Adina, Love those shots of the park! And your cactus will get more buds, I hope. Your friends' has Many! :D
Kiska, Love the snow drifts! Hopefully we wil have a little of the whits stuff for Christmas! or at least that is the prediction! :D
Kelli, Now that is some green! Gorgeous rolling hills! Nothing like a little rain to green thing up! :D
Pepper, Glad to here that the roads are clearing up...and a white Christmas in store for you! :D
Ric! Shorts! LOL
Deb, Love those Clouds! and such a blue sky! :) Hope you get some rain!
Dyson, What was your total amount the other day? We got 1" & the rain-o-meter is now frozen!
Marsue, Thanks for the really neat Christmas wish! :D
Rann...I'm Lovin' The Trolls! :D
D, Please send some of the rain to Deb! But I'm hopin' that Dyson will get some of the snow, since he will "be home for Christmas!" :D
Well, The tree that Garrett got for us wouldn't stand up! I think the base was a little small for the stand. We tried tying it down w/ no luck, so we went to Lowe's (who was having a sale) & purchased a "fake" tree. It's the first one we have ever had! We consider it "going green".
The current...back to normal.
Temp 34�F
Feels like: 31�F
Barometer: 30.2 in
Dewpoint: 32�
Humidity: 93%
Visibility: 4 miles
Wind: 3 mph WSW
Sunrise: 7:33 AM
Sunset: 5:08 PM
Dec 25...Flurries
The trivia...
The Earth orbits the Sun at a distance of roughly 93 million miles. The Moon is much closer, at a distance of about:
a) 29,300 miles
b) 118,500 miles
c) 192,800 miles
d) 239,000 miles
Have a Wonderful Day! :D
We found this in the tree that Garrett got...
Yesterdays intermittent sleet / freezing rain did not add to the contents of the rain gauge, it is still at 2.4 inches. It was just enough to put a light coating of ice on the porch for a couple of hours. And it made working on the car miserable.
36�(F) And the sky is getting light w/a gray overcast.
Reporting Station: KROA
Relative Humidity: 73%
Wind: 0� (N) at 0mph
Gusts: 0mph
Pressure: 30.18in
Yesterday's Precip: in
Yesterday's Low Temp: 32�F
Yesterday's High Temp: 49�F
Dew Point: 30�
Visibility: 10mi
Ceiling: Unlimited
Heat Index: 38�
Wind Chill: 38�
6hr Precip: in
6hr Low Temp: 38�F
6hr High Temp: 43�F
Currently: 36�F Partly Cloudy
Currently: 2�C Partly Cloudy
Wind: Southeast at 5 MPH
Humidity: 79%
Dewpoint: 30�F
Barometer: 29.77 inches and falling
Wind Chill: 32�F
Wind: Southeast at 8 KPH
Humidity: 79%
Dewpoint: -1�C
Barometer: 1008 millibars and falling
Wind Chill: 0� C
Minus 6F; less than 3 miles from here, it's Minus 18*F...(that area is known for the pocket of cold; it's also the location of the elementary school for this area).
Increasing clouds. Patchy fog in the morning. Highs 5 below to 5 above. Northeast wind to 10 mph.
Sunrise 10:15; Sunset 3:33 loss of 11 seconds.
music2keep~~thanks. The nest with the gift/Cross; is beautiful and timely. Hoping you have a white Christmas, too.. D
Dyson~~sleet and freezing rain is a very unpleasant combination, I'm sure~~light by now?
pepper23~looks to be a bit better; but chilly, there.
Ice fog on snow yesterday.
Hi everyone :-)
It's cloudy, a bit breezy but not raining at the moment, 48�F. Wind from the south at 22 mph, gusting to 33 mph.
Kelli - thanks for answering my question. That's a beautiful photo. What a difference! It's hard to believe it's the same area.
Ric- wow - I thought our weather fluctuations were hard to keep up with! lol Hope you get a white Christmas :-)
Sharon - lol, no I haven't gone through the trouble, but I know some people do ;-) lol The girls have gotten notes from a few though and they save those ;-)
marsue - whenever you have the time to track down the recipe is fine ;-) No worries :-) Yes the girls do love to polish their nails ..... Hildur Eva's so happy to have her own now so she won't have to borrow from Selma. lol
adina - thanks :-) Your friend's Christmas cactus is gorgeous! Such a pretty color. If it makes you feel any better, mine doesn't have any buds so yours is doing better! ;-) lol
Debi - I think you might be right. lol
kiska - thanks. I do hope you get a chance to visit some day :-) That's a beautiful photo :-)
D - seems like we're in the same boat. Combined precipitation(rain) for Sept/Oct/Nov for my area was 17.7 inches and December has been way above average too so we're probably close to 20" by now ........ maybe more ..... We've had enough already! lol
Nr. 9 is Bj�gnakr�kir and he just LOVES sausages! There's nothing that could get between him and a good piece of sausage. He's quite the gymnast and can climb anything to get what he wants ;-) lol
He also knows how to impress and brought the girls 2 more littlest pet shop pets - they were thrilled :-) lol
The forecast is wet until Sunday - then it looks like we could actually get some snow :-) So there's still hope! lol
Have a great day everybody :-)
This message was edited Dec 20, 2007 6:42 PM
Hi Rannveig
We never hear about your weather in OR, love to hear and see the weather in all over the world and land
Not raining this second but suppose to in a bit. Right now it is 37F...and feels colder
Kelli; was that the Arboritum in Arcadia? Used to be the old Lucky Baldwin Estates? I used to live close to them and loved them. Went there many a day but we were on a permnant pass in the good old days, never had to pay to see the lovely estates and go to the sales, but now of course we do and it will always be worth it.
Rann! That dude in your last posting remindes memyself right now. Well, I'm just fed up with the city life and I'm going to jump into the train to escape to my Southern estate. With all the nature amenities there.
Your word skir precariously reminds me the russian word [s i (hard sign) r], which means exactly cheese.
Expect more southern weather updates, and pics of the Nature.
Ye'all are just amasing!
Joey: I guess "C".
Dyson: Hope you don't have to deal with more sleet and freezing rain. Nasty stuff!
Rann: I think Bjugnakraekir is my favorite troll so far! Funny fella.
Dee: Hope you get a chance to dry out soon!
Juri: What pretty green hills! Have fun "down south"!
Kelli: Gorilla says, "Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits." :)
56F and CLOUDY! Rain predicted later tonight. I'll believe it when I see it in the rain gauge.
High tomorrow 62F. That's the forecast pretty much for Christmas day, too.
(PS/ Summer flashback.)
Currently: 38�F Clear
Currently: 3�C Clear
Wind: North at 3 MPH
Humidity: 79%
Dewpoint: 32�F
Barometer: 29.82 inches and falling
Wind Chill: 36�F
Wind: North at 4 KPH
Humidity: 79%
Dewpoint: 0�C
Barometer: 1010 millibars and falling
Wind Chill: 2� C
Look at what tomorrow's temps supposed to be. Wow!!
Friday: Warming rays. Highs up to 58. South winds 10 to 20 mph.
Another ice storm pic. Taken at work.
Snow showers. Accumulation up to 2 inches. Lows 5 below to 5 above zero. Temperatures steady or slowly increasing through the night. North to east wind 5 to 20 mph
Dark, 34�(F)
Reporting Station: KROA
Relative Humidity: 87%
Wind: 0� (N) at 0mph
Gusts: 0mph
Pressure: 30.21in
Yesterday's Precip: in
Yesterday's Low Temp: 36�F
Yesterday's High Temp: 52�F
Dew Point: 30�
Visibility: 0.75mi
Ceiling: 300ft
Heat Index: 34�
Wind Chill: 34�
6hr Precip: 0.17in
6hr Low Temp: 38�F
6hr High Temp: 45�F
Marsue � I much prefer it to be cool/cold at Christmas not spring/summer warm!
Sidney � I love the frog lights! Too cute
Adina � The lights at your park are very festive! At least your cactus is trying. Is it getting sunlight?
Kelli � That�s a beautiful picture of the canyon.
Ric � YAY? Snow!
Pepper � Sounds like your roads are awfully slick now. Be careful.
Kiska � Beautiful snow picture!
D- Wecome to the forum! Please take some pictures of your area. And yes � please aim your fan in our direction as we could use the rain! LOL!
Dyson � Is it dark?
Rann- Bj�gnakr�kir is quite the acrobat! That�s a hysterical picture! I know the girls just LOVE him for the additional littlest pet shop pets.
Juri � That�s a lovely picture of the misty mountains! Where was that taken? Can�t wait to see your Southerly pics!
Joey � I�m going with D. We have an artificial tree as well. I caved in last year, but it�s really pretty.
Deb � Did you get any rain?
Pepper � That�s really warm for your area. When is it going to get cold again?
Scattered Clouds
Humidity: 93%
Dew Point: 61 �F / 16 �C
Wind: 3.0 mph / 4.8 km/h / 1.3 m/s from the SSW
Wind Gust: 7.8 mph / 12.6 km/h / 11.3 m/s
Pressure: 29.76 in / 1007.7 hPa (Rising)
Visibility: 10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers
UV: 0 out of 16
Clouds: Few 1400 ft / 426 m
Scattered Clouds 3300 ft / 1005 m
Partly cloudy and breezy. High 69. South winds 15 to 20 mph shifting to the northwest by midday.
We didn't get as much rain as predicted. The system moved in a more Northerly direction. We did get 1/4" of rain over night. I'll take it. It's pretty windy now.
I've had some kind of a virus the last couple of days and haven't felt very well. Headaches, nausea, dizzy...
Good morning!
We had more rain and wind last night, nothing drastic though. Now it's wet and fairly calm, light breeze 6 mph from the south and 41�F. Today is winter solstice so tomorrow we'll start gaining some light :-) Today's sunrise will be at 11:22 and sunset at 3:29.
Nr. 10 is Gluggag�gir. He's a nosey fellow who peeps through windows looking for something worth having. If he sees something he fancies he'll usually try to get it at a later time. Kind of like window shopping .... ;-)
He brought the girls multi-colored glitter pens and more pets (the trolls bought a value pack of pets so this will be a recurring theme until Christmas ;-)) lol
Unfortunately both the girls came down with a fever yesterday, so they're both sick today, their first day of Christmas vacation ...... Hildur Eva's feeling much better already so I hope it'll all be over before Christmas!
Juri - I can't wait to see some photos from the south! :-) Skyr is actually sometimes classified as a kind of cheese ..... it's somewhere between cream cheese and thick yogurt (except it's fat free).
Kelli - nice photo of the gorilla
Debi - LOL that's a good one!
Pepper - wow a heat wave! Will it cool down again before Christmas?
Sharon - sounds like the same things that's been going around here - Selma's been complaining about headaches for most of December and I've lost count on what number cold I'm on now. Had the headaches last week ...... Sure hope you'll feel better soon!
Have a great day everyone!
Dense fog advisory in effect until 10 am cst this morning. snow and blowing snow advisory in effect from 12 pm Saturday to midnight cst Saturday night.
Currently: 27�F Partly Cloudy
Currently: -2�C Partly Cloudy
Wind: East at 6 MPH
Humidity: 89%
Dewpoint: 24�F
Barometer: 29.82 inches and falling
Wind Chill: 20�F
Wind: East at 9 KPH
Humidity: 89%
Dewpoint: -4�C
Barometer: 1010 millibars and falling
Wind Chill: -6� C
11*F, dark till 10:15am, sets at 3:33 with a loss of 2seconds daylight.
Cloudy with patchy fog in the morning. Snow likely in the afternoon. Snow accumulation up to 1 inch. Highs 10 to 20 above. North to east wind 10 to 25 mph becoming light in the afternoon.
Sharon; get well soon; love the sunset pic.
rann~sounds like the trolls are bringing "good stuff" and the girls are loving everything. Hope they, too, get well soon.
pepper23~seems like a good time to not be out driving.
Kelli~cute pic from the visit to the zoo.
Dyson, it's 7am here, dark, but hopefully it's at least dim there by now:)
Deb~~love the summer flashback-a nice bright jolt of color looks great.
My first "draped" warm glass project; fresh out of the kiln.
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text:
Hot Craig staying in Cardinals' cleanup spot
Hot Craig staying in Cardinals' cleanup spot
"Right now," Matheny said, "I can't see a better spot for him."
With Carlos Beltran struggling and David Freese recovering from a wrist injury, Craig is a natural choice to slide into the fourth spot in the lineup. But his tenure there might not be temporary.
Craig, who has driven in nine runs in his past four games, leads the Majors with a .409 (36-for-88) with runners in scoring position. His average in such spots with less than two outs is even better at .524.
"I've always liked driving in runs," Craig said. "Throughout my career, I've been in the middle of the lineup. I definitely take pride in driving in runs, but as far as the stats go, I don't really worry about that. I just try to take each situation for what it is."
Craig's three RBIs on Sunday pushed him to a season total of 71, even though injuries have limited Craig to only 85 games. He became the fourth Cardinals player to eclipse the 70-RBI mark this season, making the Cardinals the only National League team with four players to achieve the feat.
Holliday is leading the league with 89 RBIs. Beltran is tied for second with 85, while Freese has 71.
Craig has made at least 23 starts from three different spots in the batting order (second, fourth and fifth) this season.
"I think he's becoming one of the elite middle-of-the-order hitters in the National League," Holliday said. "I think he's had that potential, and I think he is that now. He's been extremely impressive and putting up numbers that are as good as anybody."


text:
- 2015-09-26
Success with the long March 11 into space Shanghai pujiang one comprehensive observation only a week
- 2014-10-17
Journey to the sky Swim the Oriental pearl tower
- 2014-09-30
City hotel holiday weekend
- 2014-08-01
Chongming jinmao hyatt invite you attention to the weekend
- 2014-07-25
Zhujiajiao town to build the first hotel in the community
- 2014-07-21
Shanghai high star hotel to suburban development
- 2014-07-15
Shanghai high star-rated hotel on the outskirts of extension Bonhams conveniently with real estate
Nanjiao Hotel Shanghai is the first five-star international hotel in Fengxian District Shanghai. It is located in Nanqiao New City, Fengxian and nears the South bridge exit of Fengjin Highway(S4) by car about 2 min. Transportation here is very convenient. Hotel covers an area of over 50, 000 sq.m Featuring the Spanish architectural glory and beauty. [View Detail]


text:
Industrial Martial Arts: we put the kung-fu in your machine.
Interested in joining the world's largest centralized martial arts organization and learning Taekwondo or just getting fit?
Industrial Martial Arts (Formally Charleston and Mattoon ATA) is the largest independently owned ATA school in the area with 2 convenient locations. Industrial Martial Art's instructors are world class; awards, championships as well as long respected members of the local community. When choosing Industrial Martial Arts you can feel confident that you and your family will receive the best training possible.
We offer many programs from youth to adult. Taekwondo will definitely improve your fitness and capacity for self-defense, but our Taekwondo is not just another physical hobby. Songaham Taekwondo is a "martial art that will train you mentally as well as physically." Songaham Taekwondo promotes the development of discipline, self-control, respect, courtesy, perseverance, loyalty, and respect.
By learning Songahm Taekwondo, you are not only improving your fitness and learning to defend yourself; you are embarking on a path to improve many important aspects of your life.
Fighting techniques is one of the best forms of physical fitness. Punching and kicking is a natural human ability, whereby even a toddler will instinctively know how to make a fist and strike.
Of course, we are not condoning fighting, but reciting a scientific phenomenon.
Industrial Martial Arts has the best multifaceted fitness program encompassing martial arts. You will not get a better workout anywhere in the area.


text:
NEW YORK - The Yankees don't have Mark Teixeira or Alex Rodriguez tonight, but they still have Chris Tillman's number.
They grabbed a 3-0 lead only three batters into the game, and it took Tillman 15 pitches to record his first out. Two more runs scored, as the Yankees sent nine batters to the plate and Matt Lindstrom began to warm in the bullpen.
Four of the five runs were earned. Tillman committed an error on Ichiro Suzuki's comebacker before Russell Martin's RBI single.
Yes, it's that kind of night for Tillman, who was 1-2 with a 12.27 ERA in three career starts here spanning 11 innings. The Yankees were batting .448 against him, and they're not easing up on him tonight.
Tillman is 1-3 with an 8.71 ERA in five career starts against the Yankees, and he hasn't completed five innings in his last three outings.
This could be another short one.
Derek Jeter doubled and scored on Curtis Granderson's single, and Robinson Cano broke an 0-for-14 slump with a two-run homer. The tone had been set.
Nick Swisher singled before Raul Ibanez bounced to Tillman, who got the force at second. Eric Chavez singled and Tillman mishandled Ichiro's bouncer as another run scored. Ichiro was credited with an RBI.
Martin followed with an RBI single, but he did Tillman a favor by getting caught in a rundown. If you're scoring at home, mark it down as 7-2-4-3-4.
Tillman allowed six hits and threw 36 pitches, 17 for strikes.
Lindstrom is no longer warming, but he's apparently the Orioles' long man tonight.
Is it too late to trade for one?
Update: The Orioles scored seven runs in the top of the second inning, and the Yankees are trying to pass Ivan Nova through waivers.
OK, the second part isn't true.
The Orioles sent 10 batters to the plate, and all seven runs scored with two outs. Mark Reynolds had an RBI double, Omar Quintanilla had a two-run single and Chris Davis hit a grand slam after Nick Markakis singled and J.J. Hardy walked.
Davis is 9-for-22 with three homers and 10 RBIs during a six-game hitting streak.
Lew Ford doubled in the third inning for his first hit since Sept. 21, 2007, and he scored on Wilson Betemit's double, giving the Orioles an 8-5 lead.
Yes, it's that kind of night.
Update II: Adam Jones led off the fifth with a double and scored with two out on Betemit's single.
Orioles 9, Yankees 5.
Eight of the Orioles' runs have scored with two outs. They're 5-for-11 with runners in scoring position.
Tillman has retired 13 of 15 batters since Martin's RBI single in the first. He's gotten through five innings with his pitch count at 95.
Take away the first inning, and Tillman is working on a two-hit shutout.
Update III: Markakis has three more hits from the leadoff spot, including his 10th home run - a two-run shot off former Oriole Clay Rapada in the eighth inning.
The 11 runs are one short of the Orioles' season high. They beat the Pirates 12-6 on June 14.
Going back to Ford, he went 1,774 days between major league hits.


text:
Thu 8 Jan 2009
Adventure Games 2008 – short summary
Posted by Igor Hardy under Features, Games & Game Design
[5] Comments
2008 was an interesting year for adventure games, but none of the new releases I played was truly groundbreaking. The adventure game scene seems to be still heavily marred by the desperate struggles to get funding and publishing deals and then to make the freshly assembled teams and engines work. Even such "sure bets" of current adventure gaming as A Vampyre Story and Gray Matter suffered from flimsy marketing (GM), shameful bugs (AVS) and huge delays in production (both).
Germany is the biggest source for new titles in the genre now. However, there are very few of their newest games that I would wholeheartedly recommend from my experiences. Overclocked from fall 2007 is one of those few due to its mature themes, well realized atmosphere, and a bit different approach to storytelling.
During 2008 I was very interested in three other promising-looking German titles (still without English releases as of now), but unfortunately… The demo for the supposed dark horse Edna bricht aus (Edna & Harvey) left me hardly impressed. The demo for Sunrise (full version released in Germany by the end of 2007 actually) – a game with an intriguing, different approach to solving problems in adventure games – proved to be almost unplayable. Finally, Hal Barwood's developed in Germany Mata Hari has gathered very disappointing opinions. I'm curious how the full versions of those games will be judged in other countries.
The continuous growth of the indie scene is encouraging, but many of these productions tend to copy the gameplay and storytelling techniques from classic titles a bit too much. Some indies that gained recognition I've found simply dull (Dirty Split) or feeling artificial and unpleasant (Everybody Dies). The long awaited Broken Sword 2.5 despite high production values has proven to be typical fan fiction stitched together out of homages to the original and without much value in itself. Ultimately, the definite highlight indie game of the year was Mental Repairs Inc. (click for my review). At the moment I'm trying out the very intriguing A Second Face*.
In addition to those freeware indies, the commercial, episodic game Casebook made an interesting comeback to FMV with a brand new technology that could challenge the revered 3D polygons. Another big commercial indie event was Limbo of The Lost – in June the whole game-journalism world reacted with both distaste and excitement to the unbelievable scandal it has generated.
The 2008 game for which I had the greatest expectations (accumulated throughout the years) was A Vampyre Story. Yet the game that became my favorite of 2008 is Insecticide: Part 1. Coincidentally, both were created by LucasArts veterans that now have companies of their own. You'll find my reviews of both games as well as interviews I conducted with their creators and even more articles devoted to 2008 games on my publications page (or you can click on the box art images).
Other potential greats that I didn't manage to play yet (besides demos): Sublustrum (Outcry), Dracula 3: Sleeping Dragon, Tale of a Hero**, The Lost Crown
Let's hope that the various designers and developers that seen new releases in 2008 have emerged from their work more experienced, still passionate about the genre, and ready for new adventury ventures. And that 2009 will bring us closer to the quality of the golden days of adventure gaming.
*UPDATE (16.02.2009): A Second Face has been nominated in 15 categories in the annual AGS Awards and ultimately snatched three of them (including for best game and best story)!
**UPDATE (27.02.2009): My review of Tale of a Hero can be read here and the game has beaten Insecticide in my personal 2008 ranking.
5 Responses to " Adventure Games 2008 – short summary "
I strongly recommend Dracula: Sleeping Dragon (somehow I refuse to add the 3 to the title, since there is no connection whatsoever with the previous titles), whilst I think you can safely avoid Outcry and The Lost Crown.
As for Gray Matter, 2009 seems to be the right year, so we'll finally have the chance to judge directly. Did you realize how high are my hopes for the game? 😀 You know, I tend to be so subtle about it ^^
Thanks for the recommendation. I may pass on The Lost Crown because of lack of time, but I'm too keen on the others to miss them.
We all have great hopes for Gray Matter. It's the greatest thing on the horizon for 2009. And the entries (especially the short story) on Jane Jensen's blog are most promising. Well, I'm a bit afraid that the game may be short and the gameplay overly simplified. Yet even so it should be a most worthwhile experience.
In the meantime 2008 is bringing pretty bad news (rumors?) for old LucasArts fans out there. The sales of A Vampyre Story and Mata Hari in Germany (the primary AGs market) were quite weak so far. AVS2 will come out for sure (33% of it is already done), but will there be still funding for the final part? Mata Hari, on the other hand, may cost Hal Barwood doing any bigger projects for some time.
I'm currently finishing Tale of a Hero and its easily the best adventure game of 2008! I should post a review soon.
In other news, A Second Face has been nominated in 15 categories in the annual AGS Awards and ultimately snatched three of them (including for best game and best story)!
I guess there's much more to 2008 than I thought a short while ago.


text:
Enjoyed Kurt and Anna.
I do think that Kurt has really improved since Day 1. His posture and his movement is so much better. And, Anna looked just like a fairy princess in that gorgeous gown. I hope their scores are good.
I have to say Bristol did do better. I still don't think she moves all that much, but compared to Day 1, she has shown a lot of improvement. And, that dress was very flattering.
I could have done without the family footage of Sarah and Todd. Am I the only one who thinks those 2 look headed for divorce or separation. They definitely didn't look very happy to be together, IMO.
Really enjoyed Brandy/Maks. That dance was just lovely. And, Brandy was great at the interpretation apect.


text:
On Saturday at the Roman basilica of St. Paul's Outside-the-Walls, the Pope presided at the celebration of the second Vespers for the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. The ceremony focused on this year's theme of praying unceasingly for Christian unity.
In his homily, the Holy Father referred to the conversion of St. Paul, emphasizing that the saint's "knowledge that only divine grace could have achieved such a conversion, never abandoned him."
"At the conclusion of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, we are more aware than ever of how much the work of recreating unity, which requires all our energy and commitment, is in any case infinitely beyond our capacities. ... It is not in our power to decide when and how this unity will be fully achieved. Only God can do so."
Benedict XVI recalled the theme of this year's Week of Prayer – "pray without ceasing" - indicates that this "invitation addressed by St. Paul to the Thessalonians retains all its validity. Faced with the weakness and sin that prevent the full communion of Christians" the exhortations of the Apostle "have retained all their pertinence and this is especially true for the command to 'pray without ceasing'".
"What would become of the ecumenical movement without individual and joint prayer 'that they may all be one, as you Father are in me and I am in you?' Where can we find that 'extra drive' of faith, charity and hope of which our search for unity has such need today? Our desire for unity should not be confined to sporadic occasions but should become an integral part of our whole life of prayer. ... There is, then, no form of genuine ecumenism that does not have its roots in prayer."
Benedict XVI also spoke of the religious and monastic communities which have "invited and assisted their members 'to pray continually' for the unity of Christians." He mentioned Sr. Maria Gabriella dell'Unita as one of the outstanding figures who prayed for this goal during the last century.
"Ecumenism has great need, today as yesterday, of the great 'invisible monastery'... of that immense community of Christians of all traditions who, without noise or fuss, pray and offer their lives that unity may be achieved."
Pope reminded those in attendance that the year dedicated to St. Paul will be inaugurated in the basilica, on June 28. "May his tireless fervor to build the Body of Christ in unity help us to pray ceaselessly for the full unity of all Christians."


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Ever since I saw Scarlett Johansson wearing this adorable party dress at the New York premiere of Scoop, I've been determined to track down the designer. Turns out, the surprisingly affordable frock is the Suzy Dance Silk Dress by Peter Som, available here for $1,530. I absolutely love the way it combines a girly 1960s silhouette with sophisticated accents, like the gray-velvet hem and black-lace detail.
Scarlett inspired me to check out the rest of Som's Fall/Winter 2006 Collection, which is a parade of great party dresses in black, white, and gray tones.
To view my other favorites from the line,
From the Peter Som Fall/Winter 2006 Collection
Though most of these dresses aren't available online yet, you can find Som's label at select Bloomingdale's, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, and other stores.


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Alex Presley and Josh Harrison are scheduled to attend workouts for about 10 days so that both can work on specific areas of their games. Harrison will be getting instruction at shortstop, a position he has not played regularly since college.
Presley's focus will be on bunting, as the Pirates work to get him more comfortable in using the bunt as an offensive weapon. He'll also spend some time refining his running game, with attention paid to his leads and breaks on stolen-base attempts.
"There is still something to prove every year," Presley said. "I have to prove that I can come back and play well up here. There is always something new no matter if you're Albert Pujols or me. There is always motivation to be found somewhere."
Manager Clint Hurdle will travel to Bradenton to help supervise some of those IL workouts. Hurdle is also working on getting catcher Michael McKenry to join him in Florida for some one-on-one hitting instruction.
McKenry is a strong candidate to be the Pirates' backup catcher again in 2012, though his offensive production has trailed off since he first arrived. Since the beginning of August, McKenry has just 10 hits in 64 at-bats.
McKenry and Hurdle are also scheduled to meet three times during the offseason for hitting instruction.