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We were fully prepared to hate the Microsoft Surface Pro. After all, it was designed and produced by Microsoft, and we haven't seen many flashes of brilliance from Redmond since the XBox. That was more than eleven years ago! Yes, Microsoft has new smartphones, but they're too little, too late in our opinion. So why is the Surface Pro different? For openers, it runs pure Windows 8, not the Windows RT crippleware. While we're not much of a Windows cheerleader any more (we were for the first 25 years), it is worth noting that Apple has one operating system for desktops and notebooks and a different (crippled) one for smartphones and tablets. And Google has one operating system for its notebooks and a very different one for its smartphones and tablets. Microsoft, on the other hand, had a better idea. The same operating system runs on both its desktop computers, its notebooks, and its latest tablet, the Surface Pro. What that means is the same application that runs on your desktop computer can now perform equally well on a tablet. And it can do it with or without the Surface's revolutionary, portable keyboard. Application portability is huge especially if your company happens to still be a pure Microsoft shop. And it's especially important if you or your employees happen to travel for a living.
It Just Works. So much for the theory. The bottom line for us was whether our existing PBX in a Flash, Incredible PBX, and Android platforms could live and breathe on the Surface Pro. The short answer is a resounding YES. This is not the crippled, proprietary Windows RT platform found in the original (klunky) Surface. This is a fully functional Windows 8 machine with an Intel processor, blazing performance, and both microSD and USB 3.0 slots, nice additions that you won't find on a lot of tablets. If an app will run with Windows 7 or Windows XP, it works just as well or better on the Surface Pro. And with BlueStacks, you can run 750,000 Android apps on your Surface Pro as well. We quickly downloaded our favorite Android VoIP app, Groove IP, from Google's Play Store using BlueStacks. Then we performed a couple of quick calls using a Google Voice account. The calls were flawless even with our shaky DSL connection on a very snowy day in the mountains. Adding BlueStack's Cloud Connect will let you push existing apps from your Android phone or tablet to your Surface Pro. Pretty cool.
For a complete technical review of the Surface Pro, visit ZDnet or TechRadar. Just pray you never need repairs.
The only thing we've found missing hardware-wise on the Surface Pro is a PrintScreen key on the awesome keyboard which is a must-have, by the way. To print screens, you'll need to use the tablet trick: VolDown + Home. But, as you can see from the screenshot above, it works fine. Because of the high resolution screen however, you lose something shrinking the images down to 650 pixels. On the software front, there were few surprises. WiFi is rock solid, and links to MiFi devices make the Surface Pro truly portable. If ass-backwards scrolling with the touchpad drives you crazy, use RegEdit and search for the mouse entry for FlipFlopHScroll. Change the decimal value from 0 to 1. The Chrome browser works fine with the keyboard and mousepad, but you'll be using Internet Explorer to work with the touchscreen in tablet mode. Hopefully, that will get fixed shortly.
SAMBA connections work fine after the usual tweaks to the Windows Registry and a reboot. NeoRouter as a VPN client or server functions just as you would expect after telling Windows 8 to run the main programs as Administrator. Windows 8 is a bit more picky about this even when you're logged in as an Administrator. Oracle's VirtualBox as a virtual machine platform for Linux appliances works swimmingly, and performance is AMAZING. We built an Incredible PBX server using the latest .ova template in under 5 minutes, and we were making free calls and sending out faxes through Google Voice in under 10 minutes. Amazing!
Family Feud. There's only one major shortcoming worth noting. Microsoft has taken their feud with Google to a whole new level with Windows 8. It's not so much the Bingification of every Windows utility that bothers us. It's what appears to be a conscious effort to banish Google from the Windows platform entirely. Think Apple! Those using two-step authentication for Google services are S.O.L. when it comes to Gmail. You're left having to deploy Gmail as an IMAP mail service to get your mail at all. Giving Microsoft the benefit of the doubt, you could give them a pass on this if it had just been the initial Windows 8 release. But there have been plenty of patches and updates since Day One, and two-step authentication for Google services remains MIA. If the United States is going to retain its lead in the software development arena, Microsoft and Google and Apple had best bury the hatchet and learn how to work together to make their offerings complimentary. Consumers aren't going to tolerate this kind of seventh grader nonsense in this day and age. So, wake up, Microsoft. Ruining an otherwise promising platform while trying to shaft Google is a lousy business decision, and it's going to backfire. Consumers will simply move exclusively to their platform of choice, and guess what? That platform isn't going to be Microsoft. More importantly, this article is a testament to what actually can be accomplished in Googlifying a Surface Pro with a little Yankee ingenuity. For all practical purposes, our Surface Pro is the best Android tablet we've ever owned, and we've owned a few. So here's a little tip for Microsoft: Remember what made Windows a hit! Ubiquity, not exclusivity!
Originally published: Monday, February 18, 2013
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STOCKTON - Prior to this season, Brookside Christian junior quarterback Austin Caldron never had taken a snap in a game.
STOCKTON - Prior to this season, Brookside Christian junior quarterback Austin Caldron never had taken a snap in a game.
Changes to the Knights' defensive scheme allowed senior Darius Henton to roam free at middle linebacker.
Both players have come through in a big way for No. 2 Brookside Christian (9-2) and both need to play well against No. 1 Foresthill (10-1) in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division VI championship game at 1 p.m. today at the Grape Bowl in Lodi.
Caldron has thrown for 2,709 yards, seventh-most in the section, with 28 touchdowns and eight interceptions, leading an offense that averages 45.3 points per game. Henton, who also plays tight end and running back, leads the section with 199 tackles, including 136 assists, for a defense that has shut out four of its past five opponents and given up 14 points in its last six games.
Brookside Christian coach La Te'f Grim, a former wide receiver standout at Franklin High, Delta College and the University of Pittsburgh, said Caldron has provided an almost seamless transition with the graduation of Tony Rodriguez, the Knights' starter the past three seasons, who helped lead Brookside Christian to the 2010 section title and a state bowl game.
"I asked Austin to play quarterback as an eighth grader," Grim said. "He said he wasn't sure what he wanted to do."
Caldron accepted Grim's request and was Rodriguez's understudy as a freshman and sophomore, taking limited snaps in practice and none in a game. Caldron never played quarterback at the youth level, either, so grabbing the reins of a team coming off a 2-8 season was a challenge. And he met it, head on.
"He's a cerebral kid," Grim said. "He listens and takes it all in."
Caldron, 17, said he prepared to assume the starting role.
"Since my freshman year, coach Grim believed in me," Caldron said. "I've been working ever since. I trained hard because I knew I had to lead the team.
"It was definitely different."
Caldron had about as distrastrous a debut as one could imagine, completing 9 of 34 passes for 104 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions in a 68-6 loss to Modesto-Central Catholic, which played Antelope-Center in the Division IV semifinals on Friday. Caldron bounced back the following game, throwing for 301 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions on 18-of-37 passing in a 36-6 win over Placerville-El Dorado. He followed that game with one of his best, when he threw for 412 yards and three touchdowns on 17-of-24 passing in a 32-12 victory over Rio Vista.
"I could tell I was getting better every day," said Caldron, who has completed 55 percent (156 of 283) of his passes and averages 246 yards per game. "Reading the defense was a hard thing to master, but what came easier was footwork because that took repetition and that's what I worked on my freshman and sophomore years."
Henton transferred to Brooskide Christian after two years at Modesto Christian. Henton said he likes the small class sizes and attention he receives from instructors and counselors at Brookside Christian. And since defensive coordinator Ed Oliver granted the 6-foot, 220-pound, 17-year-old the freedom to roam the field, Henton has enjoyed bringing opposing quarterbacks, receivers and running backs to the ground.
"The defense allows me to flow to the ball and be the middle linebacker I can be," said Henton, who also has rushed for 520 yards and 10 touchdowns on 59 carries. "I like being the only middle linebacker and I fill the gap and go after whoever has the ball."
Oliver, who joined Grim's coaching staff last season, said he switched from a more base defense to one that allows his players to utilize their talents.
"Darius has good lateral movement, so he's able to cover a lot of room, as well as put his head in there on plays in the middle," said Oliver, who works as the director of the CVS Pharmacy distribution center in Patterson. "And he has a nose for the football. He has a natural feel for the game."
Foresthill, which lost to Sacramento-Bradshaw Christian in the section championship game last season, averages about 84 yards rushing more per game than passing (140.8-224). Senior Wes Archbold leads the running game with 1,026 yards and 10 touchdowns, and senior quarterback Tom Sawyer has thrown for 1,477 yards and 27 TDs with three interceptions.
"We don't necessarily do anything crazy awesome, but we do everything pretty well," Wildfires coach Jim Herlehy said. "We've got an effective running game and effective passing game and we try to stay balanced and we try to be intelligent. We have a pretty good football IQ on this team and take what the other team gives us."
Herlehy said Brookside Christian is a formidable opponent.
"They have incredible athleticism and really good size," said Herlehy, who started the Foresthill varsity football program eight years ago. "We tackle really well, and we plan on trying to limit the big plays and try to make them go on long drives for scores."
None of Brookside's players made significant contributions on the 2010 section champion-ship team and the Knights did not make the playoffs last season. The lack of big-game experience has Grim somewhat concerned.
"None of these guys have played in a championship setting," Grim said. "Getting past the first 7 minutes is important, and then it's like a regular game."
Contact sports editor Bob Highfill at (209) 546-8282 or email@example.com.

subset: commoncrawl


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Assemble these delicious, hearty recipes in advance to make weeknight prep a snap.
Casseroles are one-dish wonders, and these casserole recipe highlight just how delicious and efficient make-ahead casseroles can be. When a long day means dinner seems like too much to manage, a weeknight casserole like our Chicken-and-Rice Bake or the Shrimp Casserole can be a quick and tasty solution. You can even prepare and freeze some of these casseroles, like Pizza Spaghetti Casserole, up to a month in advance, making dinner preparation simply a matter of selecting one of your favorites from these one-dish easy casseroles and finishing it in the oven. So plan and prepare these in advance, then enjoy Baked Ziti with Italian Sausage, or Tex-Mex Lasagna, or any of the other wonderful, make-ahead, weeknight casseroles!


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When I fired up the iPod today the first song I heard made me chuckle. Not because of the content but because of the appropriateness of the song for this week. The artist is Jason Gray and his song is called "Remind Me Who I Am".
Last weekend I had the privilege of speaking to the wonderful community of believers at Waterbrook Bible Fellowship in Wylie, Texas. Jason Gray's song IS my message from last Sunday except it is more succinct and has a much better beat. Jason Gray could have rolled in, done his song and I could have let the crowd go to IHOP. Here are some of the lyrics.
When I lose my way
When I forget my name
Remind me who I am
In the mirror all I see
is who I don't wanna be
Remind me who I am
That was main takeaway point of my Sunday message is that to be effective in this journey you have to remember who you are in Christ.
My text was from Paul's letter to the Ephesians. Paul had spent a little over two years teaching and discipling the new believers in Ephesus. Just a few short years after he left Paul received reports that those new hearts had reverted to old habits. Things were a bit of a mess and the word came back that the old behaviors of rage, immorality, lying, stealing and gossip were resurfacing. Paul wrote a letter to address this sad turn of events. Yet the amazing thing to me is that the first three chapters never address their sin. Paul even calls them as saints for crying out loud! If I was writing that letter it would have had an entirely different tone. Something more along these lines. "What are you thinking? I am so disappointed in you. What is wrong with you? Do you know how much I sacrificed for you?" But Paul doesn't do that. Rather, in the first three chapters, he talks about identity. He reminds them who they are. That is what Jason Gray is asking God to do in his song.
In the loneliest places
When I can't remember what grace is
Tell me once again who I am to You
Who I am to You
Tell me
Lest I forget who I am to You
I belong to You
I had a really difficult time trusting my identity. But your actions tend to reflect who you believe you are. You default to your identity. I had read this verse from Paul's second letter to the church at Corinth dozens of times:
"This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!" (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Because of Christ I have a new identity. I am righteous because of Him and not because of trying to do more right "stuff." I am a saint and there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus. It is a liberating and joyous message. But there is a problem. Satan hates that message of hope and change. And so he goes about trying to "steal' my identity in Christ. I spend money and time and put lots of effort into protecting my financial and personal identity. And that is important. But I would suggest that our spiritual identity is far more important and I am afraid we make it all too easy for the enemy to steal away from us.
Remind me who I am
When I can't receive Your love
Afraid I'll never be enough
Remind me who I am
If I'm Your beloved
Can You help me believe it
We find it difficult to believe that we are changed because many times when we fail the old tapes are instantly cue up and start playing loudly:
You will never change.
You always do that.
I can't believe you did that again.
What is wrong with you?
All of those accusations that Satan (and others who are quite happy to help) hurls your way are no longer true about you. All of the guilt and shame and sin that used to define you are no longer true. That old life is gone. You are a new creation. New life has begun.
Even though the Ephesians had messed up royally in how they were living out their faith Paul did not condemn them as he began his letter. He had to be heartbroken. But he showed his love by not lecturing but by reminding them who they were….adopted, redeemed, and sealed. Saints. He NEVER wrote a word about changing their behavior until chapter four!
I have spent too many years being an Ephesians 4 to 6 Christian. I looked at behavior and judged that…often sinfully. I am becoming an Ephesians 1 to 3 Christian. Remembering and reminding myself and others who we are. Out of those truths behavior changes.
Jason Gray sings in the chorus to "Tell me once again who I am to You". When you are a follower of Christ here a just things that are true of you.
Adopted. Redeemed. Sealed. Loved. A saint. Righteous. Accepted. Forgiven. A new creation. A child of God.
No matter what difficulty or trial you might encounter this week I pray that you will take a moment and remember who you are. A saint. Adopted. Redeemed. Sealed. And live out of those amazing truths. Consider yourself reminded.


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Cape Ann Chimney and Hearth, established in 1978, is one of the first Chimney Cleaning and Stove Shops on the North Shore. Owned and operated by husband and wife Bob and Kathy Boulter, we offer the following services and products:
Chimney Cleaning, liners, caps and dampers. Chimney inspection and consulting services. Pellet and woodstove installation, repair and troubleshooting. Wood, Pellet, Gas Stove and fireplace sales. Year round sales of pellet fuel, Bio BricksTM and palletized firewood. Glass doors and hearth accessories
Massachusetts Construction Supervisor License #98767 * Home Improvement Contractor #149402
Directions: Take Route 128 North to the end (Over the Annisquam Bridge, straight through the 2 rotaries). At the end of Route 128 North (Bottom of a long hill), take a left onto Route 127 (towards Rockport). Go past Shaw's Supermarket and the Calvary Cemetery (on the right) and take your next left onto Pond road. 7 Pond Road is the 4th building on the right.


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Older News » School holiday reading ideasLast updated 10:56 AM on 15 September 2011
24 June 2011
Encouraging your kids to pick up a few good books during the holidays is a great way to keep their hard-earned reading skills from slipping. Here are some suggestions.
Books for young kids
For boys and girls in Kindergarten to Year 2:
- The Terrible Plop - Ursula Dubosarsky
- Clancy & Millie and the Very Fine House - Libby Gleeson.
For boys and girls in Years 3 and 4:
- Ballroom Bonanza - Nina Rycroft (a fabulous rhyming alphabetical picture book)
- The Adventures of a Late-Night Swearer - Nette Hilton
- The Walk Right in Detective Agency series - Moya Simons (heaps of humour and a quirky appeal).
Books for tweens
For girls in Years 5 and 6:
- Pearl Verses the World - Sally Murphy.
Boys in Years 5 and 6:
- Schooling Around series - Andy Griffith.
Girls in Years 7 to 9:
- Lucy Zeezou's Goal - Liz Deep-Jones (great for fashion-conscious and/or soccer-playing girls).
Boys in Years 7 to 9
- Ranger's Apprentice series - John Flanagan
- Australian Backyard Explorer - Peter Macinnis.
Books for teenagers
- Siggy and Amber - Doug MacLeod (Siggy learns the perils of drinking alcohol at too young an age)
- Surf Ache - Gerry Bobsien (a surfing, ballet-dancing chick copes in a new town)
- Nancy Wake and Tobruk – both by Peter FitzSimons (includes some mature content and strong language but are well-researched books about great Australian heroes).
More reading ideas
Visit the NSW Premier's Reading Challenge website, which lists great books that are available in bookshops. The books are listed in age-challenge levels with lots of detail to check out. (Remember they are just a guide so if you have a child in Year 3 who is a good reader, you may like to look at the challenge level 5-6 booklist.)
Check out school holiday programs run through your local public library.


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On July 15, the S&P 500 stock index closed at an all-time high of 1677.60. This is shortly after the market had a hissy fit when the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) minutes mentioned "tapering" of monthly stimulus, which meant the drive-up window distributing easy money (quantitative easing) was closing (See "Fed headed for tapering, but exit still far away," page 21). But wait, no, said Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke later, we really aren't going to ease off that much because the economy still needs help. The reduction of bond purchases continues to be contingent on the labor market and inflation, he said. So, the stock market, relieved that QE's end was kicked down the road to 2014, went higher, happy in its cheap money bliss.
This is very much what one analyst called a "bizarro market" in our stock and bond outlook piece, "Good news: Fed plants seeds for rational markets," (page 20), in that the market has been reacting to how the Fed responds to economic data, and not to the data itself. And although some analysts believe the Fed has changed policy, Bernanke says no. The Fed has been and still is watching the labor market and interest rates, and will "taper" QE as it sees fit. An increase in rates is well down the road and may happen only after the spigot has been turned off, he noted.
A return to normalcy with the negative correlation between the bond and stock markets would be welcome as the repercussions of 2008 continue to haunt all aspects of the markets and business.
Another event occurred right around the time Bernanke was clarifying the Fed line. On June 27, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) finally filed charges against MF Global (Inc. and Holdings), Jon Corzine and Edith O'Brien (see "First blood: CFTC files complaint against MF Global, Corzine and O'Brien, finally," page 42).
These charges are civil only but do come with a significant monetary penalty. It appears the receivers for MF Global have approved the settlement, which basically is making all customers whole and then paying a $100 million fine. At press time, it was awaiting court approval.
For Corzine and O'Brien, who was assistant treasurer of the firm and — as we see through taped conversations — was in the thick of it, the road will be longer. Corzine's attorney released a comment saying that all the CFTC's allegations were without merit, but let's be clear: they've got everyone on tape or e-mail. The CFTC shares conversations Corzine had in which it shows he was playing with seg funds like it was his own money. O'Brien appears to be his henchman in getting the money moved. "Merit" it seems, is in the eye of the beholder.
The anger at Corzine hasn't subsided and truthfully many people, likely those who were hurt because of Corzine's actions, want to see more than just a fine leveled at him. Although an anonymous source told the New York Post that the Department of Justice (DOJ) decided to drop its investigation of him, the DOJ has no comment. And there is one New York congressman calling to have Corzine brought up on perjury charges for contradicting what he said on tape vs. what he told Congress on the record.
Bernie Madoff and Russell Wasendorf Sr. both went to jail for stealing people's money. They were blatant crooks who were clever about covering their tracks. Corzine was a business man who started with a bad business model and added some bad decisions to it in what was a precarious market. Money being moved around isn't necessarily criminal, but it is negligent according to the rules. Several lawyers doubt there is enough evidence to send Corzine to jail, but add, he'll never work in the financial markets again. That's good for the financial markets, but doesn't go far enough to warn future Corzines.


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It appears as if most of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's attempts to increase school funding are being focused on high-need urban districts.
In an effort to direct more funding to New York state's low-wealth rural districts, upstate senators have signed a letter providing recommendations for modifying the executive budget.
The letter was written by Sen. Patrick Gallivan, of the 59th district, and was signed by 17 other state senators, including Sen. Cathy Young, R-Olean. According to Young, this bipartisan push for fiscal stabilization is just one angle of many that are being taken toward increasing school aid for rural schools.
"My goal is to reduce the gap elimination adjustment, and drive more education assistance to all of the schools in my district," she said. "There is $203 million in unspecified school aid that I would like to see distributed to the schools that need it most. I also think the governor's $75 million in competitive grant funding should be allocated as regular school aid, because it is difficult for poorer districts to have the resources to compete for grants."
In his letter, Gallivan acknowledges the governor's efforts at reducing the GEA in school aid is commendable, but not equitable.
"We were pleased to see that this year's executive budget continues to drive increases in school aid to high-need districts," he said. "However, we are concerned that a number of the low-wealth districts we represent are not receiving adequate increases in funding this year."
Gallivan asserts that high-need urban school districts such as Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse received restorations to GEA cuts of more than 40 percent, while many low-wealth districts received restorations of less than 10 percent. His letter states that thinning property tax bases and low household incomes in these low-wealth districts hinder their ability to raise the revenue required to fund a sound education.
Gallivan makes two recommendations in his letter that would modify the executive budget toward fiscal stability.
"Our first recommendation is to target fiscal stabilization grants at school districts with combined wealth ratios below the state average that will receive less than the state average of 14.9 percent of their 2012 GEA," he said. "Our second recommendation is to delay the $75 million of competitive program grants. While we are supportive of the ambitious changes these grants aim to bring about, we believe that these funds should be used to reduce the GEA of low-wealth school districts receiving GEA restorations less than the state average of 14.9 percent. These changes will ensure that low-wealth school districts can continue to provide their students with a sound, basic education."
Sen. Young said the Senate is continually seeking feedback and analyzing all of its options in order to find the best solution to be included in the state's executive budget.
"We are continuing budget hearings to fully analyze the governor's proposal," she said. "Subcommittees have been formed in the Senate, one-house budget resolutions will be passed in a couple of weeks, and then negotiations between the Senate, Assembly and governor will begin in earnest. Education is a top Senate priority, and we will push hard for positive results. We also continue to seek other constructive solutions such as establishing regional high schools."
In addition to Gallivan and Young, the letter includes signatures from Senators: David Valesky, Greg Ball, John Bonacic, Kathleen Marchione, Elizabeth Little, Joseph Griffo, Patricia Ritchie, Hugh Farley, John DeFrancisco, James Seward, Thomas Libous, Michael Nozzolio, Thomas O'Mara, Mark Grisanti, Michael Ranzenhofer and George Maziarz.


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Could iPhone apps change the way we travel?
"Transportation is civilization," Rudyard Kipling once wrote. Today we're more inclined to express this equation with words like mobility and accessibility, but the spirit's the same: The flow of people and goods ("traffic and all that it implies," per Kipling) makes the world hum. But transit can feel uncivilized: We sit in congestion (wishing for the path less taken); we miss trains; we hunt for good places to park a car or a bike; we get lost.
Enter the iPhone. One of the device's greatest areas of promise is as a transportation tool. Rival smartphones, of course, are equipped with GPS, Internet access, etc., but none corral quite so many of the features that delight transpo geeks (an accelerometer, a compass, etc.) into one device. And rival phones can only envy the iPhone's flourishing app market, which includes some 65,000 options, many at least peripherally related to transportation (that is, if you include parallel parking games and the like).
It's intriguing to imagine how transportation itself could be changed by such apps. Of course, the utility of any of them depends on a number of things, ranging from the robustness of the GPS signal to the transparency and fidelity of available information to the number of users the app boasts. (Not to mention battery power.) So here's a broad and by no means exhaustive look at the most promising—or at least most intriguing—apps to date.
Car Apps
GPS-enabled navigation devices have already changed driving. (Industry-funded studies, taken with the usual grains of salt, suggest that they provide significant time and mileage savings.) So it's no surprise to see the big players in this field—including TomTom ("a thousand songs, a million roads, sitting on your dashboard") and Navigon—offering their own apps. These are not cheap ($99 for the TomTom app, for example); will occupy significant space on your phone; and, strangely, do not include a traffic conditions layer. On the flipside, you can carry your device with you wherever you go—goodbye break-ins and nav-system surcharges at rental car companies—and map routes to the contact addresses listed in your phone. Of course, a navigation app must meet a high standard to be worth buying, since the Google Maps app that comes installed on the device provides decent (though not turn-by-turn) directions and adequate "real-time" traffic reports. (I resort to scare quotes because the phrase is an industry fiction, since such reports always involve some delay, often of several minutes.) A good free app from traffic-info provider Inrix has a "predictive" function that shows estimated future congestion levels on routes; when I tried it, the app did correctly tag nearby congestion on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, though I didn't stick around to see whether it would still be jammed in a half hour, as Inrix said it would.
The Waze app tries to crowdsource traffic information—an approach pioneered in nonapp form by Dash (which required users to buy an expensive device) and currently being rolled out by Google. Waze features "driver generated" live maps and traffic information, based on the "wisdom of the crowd." The only problem: There isn't much of a crowd here, at least not yet. I didn't see any other users whose previous trip speed over my route may have hinted as to what times I could expect on my short jaunts around the neighborhood. And when I entered destinations (while parked, since doing so while driving would be exceedingly difficult, and stupid), I felt a little like a guinea pig: "Route may not be optimal, but Waze learns quickly." (It's also hard to tell at what point a Waze user who's not moving is simply parked, rather than actually stuck in traffic, although they've probably designed an algorithm for this.) Waze has other quirks. Pressing the "reports" button alerts me of an accident—719.7 miles away, in Chicago (reported 30 minutes ago by user "intrepid"). What sort of accident? How many lanes? What's the potential delay? Is it still there? So far, the crowds are pretty dumb. (And let's not forget the process of entering this information may contribute to another crash.)
Aha Mobile, another traffic app, takes a different approach. Rather than providing a map, its "RoadBoat" function reads out alerts about roads near to where you're traveling, giving average speeds and other realish-time traffic information (provided by Inrix). One complaint here is the staccato, unending delivery of the "shouts," often for roads I had no intention of traveling on. Of particular interest and amusement was the "shout room," where, among other things, drivers can sound off about fellow drivers; entering unleashed a procession of short recorded comments from users venting about "a guy in a gray Mazda" and so on. Therapeutic though this may be, the question here—and for many of these apps—is: Do we really need another distracting task inside the car?
Slightly more useful, perhaps, is the panoply of parking apps. I've been using the New York-centric PrimoSpot, which maps local parking garages, street parking (alas, it can't find open spaces), and bicycle racks (with enticing pictures; I confess I spent a bit too much time on a bike rack photo tour of my neighborhood from my couch). It also maps, for the forgetful, one's current parking spot. The next leap in parking will marry geo-located parking availability with real-time pricing based on demand.
There are also a host of "eco-driving" apps, which use the accelerometer to measure vehicle movement and such. I tried greenMeter, and while I enjoyed the graphics, I couldn't help noticing, as I drove myself or sat in the back of a Boston taxi (and don't forget all the taxi-finding apps), that it often reported the "best" driving efficiency during moments of braking. But braking is terribly inefficient. The app made me wonder why only hybrid vehicles tend to have sophisticated in-car driving feedback monitors, when even the most gas-guzzling SUV can be driven in a way that's more efficient. Perhaps car companies have determined most drivers don't care or that the RPM gauge, functionally rather useless in an automatic transmission vehicle, is more important.
The most promising app I saw is the carpooling app Avego (currently in a "launch & learn state"), which is described as a "cross between carpooling, public transit, and eBay," with a user reputation/feedback mechanism included; it also would include a payment function—i.e., a way to help out with gas money—which, as one rideshare expert put it to me, "is always awkward in person." This is actually something of an old idea, and it's still, apparently, awaiting fruition. In testing out the app, I wasn't able to snag a ride, but I did learn some interesting facts. Among them: The average carpool has a life of nine months.
Public Transit Apps
Given how complex route planning and transfers can be—not to mention the uncertainty of travel times, arrivals, and service interruptions—the iPhone is a godsend for public-transportation users (at least for those who can spring for an iPhone). There are already scads of simple map apps for metro stations around the world (these are just fun to have), but the evolving issue here is the availability (or lack thereof) of data from the transit providers. Massachusetts, for example, just announced it will "democratize the data," giving developers the information needed to create transit apps. Multi-modal Portland, not surprisingly, was out in front on this with several transit apps, including PDXBus, which uses live tracking information from TriMet to display arrival times; cleverly, it also turns the iPhone into a flashing beacon to signal bus drivers to stop. We're also about to enter the "augmented reality" era in transit station mapping; New York Nearest Subway will allow users to hold the phone up to a street and have the nearest stations displayed, hovering in the air in the view of the actual streetscape. (Note: You really shouldn't do this while walking.)
Bicycle Apps
There are several apps like the aforementioned PrimoSpot that find bike parking, and there's a good one that tracks the availability of free Vélib bikes in Paris. But the iPhone's GPS and accelerometer make it a natural (if less than optimally accurate) cycle computer, and there are many apps that allow cyclists to record everything from your maximum speed to the routes you've covered. I've particularly enjoyed B.iCycle's app, which tracks variables like average speed and altitude climbed, then sends an e-mail report at the trip's conclusion. REI's BikeYourDrive features a nice twist on the concept, showing the advantage in cost, carbon emissions, and calories of a particular bike trip versus the automotive alternative. My short roundtrip to weekly soccer, for example, had a carbon offset of 3.6 pounds, let me burn 130 calories, and saved me 50 cents on fuel. (I should note, the cost of the car itself, insurance, etc. are not included in this equation.) There are a few significant limitations to all these programs, some of which could conceivably be fixed by Apple: The GPS works optimally out in the open, so a handle-bar mount will supply the best data. (I simply put mine in a backpack, which is probably why it thinks my altitude didn't change.) And receiving a call, or running any other app, will suspend the current app. But you shouldn't be biking and talking on the phone at the same time, anyway.
Walking Apps
As the transport mode that is the least dependent on technology, walking, per se (apart from the navigation aspects), isn't as well-served by the iPhone. Still, it's fun to have WalkScore tell you the walkability of the place you're in at the moment; for extra fun, you can run Zillow to confirm the link between walkability and higher real-estate prices. There are also a bunch of pedometers, and what's striking about these is how fitness-oriented they all are. They all suggest that walking is something you merely do for aerobic activity, not a way to get to work.
While many of these apps are clearly works in progress, providing marginal (if novel) benefit, there's every reason to think the iPhone and its ilk will enhance the user experience of transportation and perhaps even change it for the better. (Or possibly the worse, if it merely leads to more distracted drivers.) This will, of course, require that our transportation systems themselves become smarter than the average iPhone—I'm writing this column on a nonwireless-equipped Amtrak train—and by itself, the phone won't necessarily solve any traffic problems: Knowing one's morning commute is going to be crowded may not be enough to persuade the solo driver to carpool, bike, or take public transit instead.


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Crystal Ball 7 HD
- Publisher: Lei Zeng
- Genre: Entertainment
- Released: 28 Jun, 2012
- Size: 7.0 MB
- Price: FREE!
- App Store Info
DescriptionOnce you drop, you can't stop !
This is a game beyond all the puzzle game !!
This is a game you'll be addicted!
This is a easy game but takes a long time to master!
Move the ball left or right and then Drop the crsytal ball to gird.
A ball will disappear when its number matches the amount of balls in its current row or column(Only counting contiguous balls). The no-color ball is special, when a ball close to it disappears, it will change state, the next time a ball close to it disappears, it will change to a colorful ball with random number.
This is an easy puzzle game that will keep you entertained for hours.
I've ever got 20,000 points just one drop. Can you ??
Just stay alive and get chains to reach high scores. Good luck!
How to play:
1.Touch the screen and move the ball left or right, and release you finger to drop the ball.
2.Use the "Bomb" to change any non-color crystal ball to Crystal Ball 7, So it's wise to use this item while there are too many non-color balls in the bottom, because when they are changed to Ball 7, it will dismiss.
3.Make sure the rows of balls are not greater than 7, if there are any balls are out of the grid, game is over! And also, if the grids are all full, Game is over .
4.Try to make chains as long as you can, scores are exponential growth.
What's New in Version 3.01.Game Auto Save function added.
2.minor bug fixed.


text:
"It's incredible how far we have come in 12 years!"
The venue for this quotation was the cavernous Paramount Theater in Asbury Park, New Jersey at 2 AM last Sunday morning, at the conclusion of a six-hour rock concert before a capacity crowd.
The event was the latest production of Light of Day Foundation, the brainchild of Bob Benjamin, a former music publicist and producer. Light of Day's purpose is to raise money for scientific research on Parkinson's disease (PD) and other neurological disorders through fundraising concerts – initially on the Jersey Shore, and more recently through tours in Europe and elsewhere.
And the speaker was Bruce Springsteen.
The legendary rock musician's loyal support of Light of Day since the beginning stems from his long-time friendship with Bob, who has lived with PD bravely for many years.
Bruce is not the only musician to work with Light of Day; he is just the most famous among many. In all, more than a dozen musicians – singers, guitarists, drummers and others – have served on Bob's board of directors, performed at his concerts, raised money for PDF and his other causes … and even performed with Bob in a just-released documentary film on the organization and its inspiration. One of these – Joe Grushecky, a guitarist – was up on stage throughout Springsteen's marathon (two-hour!) final set.
They love their work. They adore Bob, their inspiration. And they are passionate about raising money to understand Parkinson's, and stop the disease in its tracks.
To this writer, in his 16th year running PDF, the experience of working with Light of Day and its gifted, creative leadership is a labor of love, but it is more than this. It is symbolic of four characteristics that drive the success of a cause like Parkinson's research.
One is the leadership of a celebrity individual – a person like Springsteen or Muhammad Ali – who attracts attention, wins hearts and fills halls.
The second is the existence of a powerful message – supporting science of the highest caliber, to understand a disease and chart the path to its cure.
The third is the presence of an organization like PDF that can parlay money and celebrity into solid work and accomplishment.
And the fourth – perhaps the most important – is the passion and authenticity of one or a few ordinary men or women who just happen to have an intimate connection with the disease and the quiet compulsion to do something about it. On the street or in a train, you might pass by a guy like Bob Benjamin without a second look. On the stage, as he chats with Bruce Springsteen and as you look around you at the evidence of his incredible accomplishments, you would never forget him.
The moral of this is simple: each one of us – like Bob – can make a difference.


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When action grows unprofitable, gather information; when information grows unprofitable, sleep. --Ursula LeGuin, The Left Hand of Darkness
Chicago Teachers Strike. The Obama: "Obama is between a rock and a hard place. He can't support the teachers, not only because the Rs will jump on him but because the teachers are striking against his own education policies. On the other hand he can't condemn them for the strike and turn off many teachers around the nation who not only vote but are activists in elections." So he's "for the children." Like everybody! … Negotiation 101: "[CPA board President David Vitale* of the union:] This is not the behavior of a group of people that are serious about the interests of our children." [* connections; "Mr. Vitale gained experience in a number of industries, including education, banking, financial services and investment management." Power: "Thousands of red shirts* were swarming south on Clark Street, chants rising toward the tops of skyscrapers, protest signs bobbing in the September sun.This was serious power. Here was an army made visible." [* Cf. VA -> Evictions] … Signage: "'Fighting to make CPS a district where Rahm would send his kids" Ouch. … ChicagoLand: "The ruckus in [Lake Forest] is one of several contract battles being fought outside of the city. [S]uburban negotiations center on the traditional issues of pay and benefits."
CA. Occupy: "Protesters with the Occupy movement, the ACLU and homeless advocacy groups dined on the front lawn of City Hall afternoon - an action that could land them a misdemeanor charge by the end of the night. The City Council is scheduled tonight to debate a new set of laws governing the use of the City Hall grounds. The ordinance would allow protests without permits or fees during the day, but require permits for a host of actions - including noisemakers and signs." Signs?!?!? … Pensions: "Gov. Jerry Brown, who will travel to Los Angeles to sign legislation reducing public employee pension benefits, said today that the measure, though less sweeping than he proposed, is 'the most that could be gotten'."
FL. Zietgeist watch: ""You can have your doomsday bunker if you want. You just can't make it out of stolen materials." … Ballot: "[The FL ballot is] so long that voters will have to fill out [5 sheets] with races on both sides, then feed those multiple pages through ballot scanners, one page at a time." Recipe for long lines, jams, miscounts, and challenges. … Water: "Although West Palm Beach water officials say they don't need help from outsiders to buttress their supply, two rock-mining companies want the city to buy into their plans to build reservoirs and then sell the water to the city."
GA. Militia: "Four former Army soldiers and a civilian have been charged in new indictments for connections to a militia allegedly led by [Isaac Aguigui,] a Chelan County man and other Fort Stewart, Ga., troops. A Liberty County grand jury indicted the five on charges of illegal gang activity and various counts involving theft, burglary and auto break-ins. Those crimes were committed to help fund the militia group [F]our of the men charged in the latest indictments are former soldiers. The new indictments bring to 10 the total number of people charged in connection with the militia group." Well, no more "anarchist" nonsense at least. … Charters: "Half of Georgia voters surveyed support changing the state constitution to allow the state to grant charters to schools begun by parents over the objections of local school boards."
IA. Air war: "The air war in Iowa's first Congressional district is fully engaged, with four new television commercials in the last week alone." Click through for YouTubes, transcripts.
MD. Infrastructure: "Inspectors for the [Maryland State Highway Administration] have discovered cracks on 10 bridges along the new $2.5 billion [Intercounty Connector] toll highway." "New."
ME. Corruption: "Not even LePage's own personal advocacy group is willing to dispute that: 1. Companies that stand to profit from [pro-charter] changes in ME's laws gave tens of thousands of dollars to support his candidacy and that 2. A foundation funded by these corporations that advocates for policies that would help their bottom line was then allowed to write key portions of LePage's education agenda." Baldacci's landfill; LePage's charters.
NV. Charters: "Combine the top two reasons for charter failure and we find 65.7% going down because of financial constraints and/or mismanagement. " Good takedown. Too bad both parties support corporate schools.
NY. Pipeline: "A compressor station, commissioned by the Millennium Pipeline and fast-tracked by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission), is slated to go up in the middle of a residential community in Minisink, NY [populated by many 9/11 first responders,] posing both environmental and health risks due to the high quantity of toxic emissions from this type of facility." … Corruption: "Former City Council Speaker Peter Vallone's lobbying firm was hit with a mind-boggling $470,000 fine -- but got it knocked down to $70,000 after it hired the former head of the State Lobby Commission to plead its case before a judge."
OH. Voting: "Plaintiffs Judicial Watch, Inc. and True the Vote filed a complaint against OH SoS Husted, [alleging] that Husted has not made reasonable efforts to remove ineligible voters from voter registration rolls."
PA. Fracking: "When [Gas Safety, Incorporated's Bob] Ackley brought his equipment to Leroy Township, he found two plumes of [methane] gas [from fracking wells] in the air -- one stretching more than 10 miles. He also documented pockets of gas under the ground, and documented elevated methane levels in one family's home."
TX. Demography: "U.S. Rep. Canseco, R-San Antonio, and his challenger, state Rep. Gallego, D-Alpine, have agreed to a Spanish-language debate in their CD-23 race."
VA. Public good: "Nearly 7,000 Virginia children whose families have opted to keep them out of public school for religious reasons are not required to get an education, the only children in the country who do not have to prove they are being home-schooled or otherwise educated, according to a study." … Occupy: "[A] jury found Richard Alexander Clay, who has no fixed address, not guilty of attempting to burn down the tent Rose Purdy and Michael Sloan called home for several weeks last fall as part of the Occupy Charlottesville protest against the unfair distribution of wealth." … Evictions: "On what used to be [Phebie Seay'a] front lawn, a group of redshirted activists* were protesting against what they say is a series of short-notice evictions involving public housing residents. About 30 people showed up to support Seay and demand that the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority follow the right policies when it comes to evictions." [* Cf. Chicago Teachers Strike -> Power]
WA. Legalization: "[T]he [Children's Alliance, a Seattle-based advocacy group with more than 100 social-service agencies as members.] board voted to endorse I-502 for a specific reason: Children in minority households pay 'a terrible price' for racially biased enforcement of marijuana laws."
WI. Air war: "Obama plans to begin airing television advertisements in WI starting on Wednesday, another sign of the state's increasing importance in the race."
Outside baseball. LIHOP? "Could the 9/11 attack have been stopped, had the Bush team reacted with urgency to the warnings contained in all of those daily briefs?" … Fracking: "How did natural gas win a favored role in the Obama administration's tightened vehicle fuel-efficiency standards, alongside electric vehicles and other carbon-free sources? It was a victory for messaging, coupled with some veiled legal threats and a president who has expressed his fondness for natural gas and the jobs it can creates." … Incentives: "After another bust, 10 reasons incentives deals stink." David Cay Johnston territory, from a local paper. … Blast from the past: Dole/Kemp '96.
Emerging parties. Polls: "The likely voters show: Obama 51%, Romney 43%, Johnson 3%, Stein 1%, undecided/other 2%."
The trail. Unlikely voters: "[In] last two polls conducted by CNN, we see that President Obama's post-convention bump was primarily a change in the composition of likely voters, not in the preferences of registered voters--as the Times' Nate Silver was quick to point out. [Nevertheless, in one study] 55% of those who say they will not vote still do so in the end." … Whites: "[A]cross the Bible Belt, 38 percent of these voters said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who is 'very wealthy' than one who isn't. This is well above the 20 percent who said they would be less likely to vote for an African-American." … Males: "Several polls released in recent days show Obama displaying new strength among male voters. Romney needs to win the male electorate by a wide margin to overcome the chronic disadvantage the GOP faces with respect to women." So whacking OBL was savvy. … The economy: "[Pew: T]here has been a modest decline in the percentage of Americans saying news about the economy is mostly bad -- with virtually all of the change coming among Ds." Clap harder? … The narrative: "The Secretary of Explaining Stuff came to Miami on Tuesday -- and he lived up to the new nickname given him by Obama," who may actually believe this.
The Romney. The two-sided mouth: "One of Romney's latest television commercials in IA asserts that cutting government spending and eliminating the federal deficit will create 130,000 jobs in IA. Meanwhile, in states with more military bases and defense sector industry, Romney campaign advertising promises to create hundreds of thousands of jobs by reversing planned cuts in defense spending." … Pearl clutching? "[LAURA INGRAHAM:] If you can't beat Barack Obama with this record, then shut down the party. Shut it down. Start new, with new people." Ouch! … Fainting couch? "[CHARLIE COOK:] It is becoming clear that if President Obama is reelected, it will be despite the economy and because of his campaign; if Mitt Romney wins, it will be because of the economy and despite his campaign."
The Romney. Bounce: Gallup has a keen chart. … Bounce, Nate Silver: "The unusually low volatility in the polls this year also makes Mr. Obama's bounce more difficult to analyze. Since the numbers have been very hard to move, does that imply that when a candidate does see a shift, his numbers are more likely to remain intact and establish a new normal?" … Bounce: "The main change has been a shift among Democrats, coalescing around their party's nominee." … Ethos: "[OBAMA:] I'm at my best when I believe what I am saying." And the White House approved that quote. Alrighty then…
Slogan of the day: "The Romney and The Ryan are the great sun of the people!"
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Harvest Moon
It seems that danger is as constant as the clouds of Forks, hanging over the Cullens, just waiting to rain. It always seems to come when times seem the happiest. With it now pouring down upon them with full force, driving a wedge in the tight-knit family, will the Cullens be able to maintain their bonds and triumph once again? Renesmee's P.o.V. REVIEWS are greatly appreciated!! =]
Love it or Hate it, just RATE it! **SORRY FOR THE HIATUS EVERYONE...I'M IN MY SECOND TO LAST SEMESTER IN COLLEGE AND IT'S BEEN TAKING UP A LOT OF MY TIME! I WILL UPDATE ASAP.**
1. My Jacob
Rating 5/5 Word Count 1106 Review this Chapter
I could hear the rumble of Jacob's steady breathing—feel the warmth as if he was right next to me—while he slumbered in the once-flowerbed just beneath my window. The soil there was permanently barren—the sprouts that once grew there had long tired of being consistently squashed under Jacob's corpulence, night after night for the past two years.
I was old enough now to understand the ties that bound him to me, and me, him. I was old enough to know that he wasn't just my best friend. Over the years, he had been everything I could ever need. He was the first one to hold me when I was sad or afraid, the first to laugh at my jokes, the most intent listener when I had a story to tell—and he would forever be the only one I would ever need. He was my Jacob.
In spite of that, My Jacob had been the cause of a disagreement—a rare occurrence—between my parents and I one afternoon two years ago while Jacob was out running with Leah and Seth.
"Dad, honestly. Why can't Jacob just keep sleeping on the couch in the living room?" I had whined.
"It is complicated, love," my dad said, forcing a soft smile. "Your mother and I have talked about it. Jacob can stay here as long as he wants during the day. It would just be inappropriate for him to continue sleeping here."
"Mom?" I searched my mother's alabaster face for some sign that she could be swayed to take my side.
"I'm sorry, sweetheart, but your father is right. He may be a little old fashioned," she broke her gaze from mine to smile tenderly at him, "but it's for the best. Until you're ready. You know we all love Jacob. It's just..."
"What? What is it?" I demanded.
"Renesmee," my father's tone was serious now, but still gentle. "There are just some things that...well...you're growing up and...er..." He winced.
It was awkward watching him stumble over his words. But then I realization washed over me as I remembered the only thing that had ever made my father act so strangely—the only thing that ever stripped my father of his ability to speak coherently. I blushed as I remembered my father's aimless stuttering a few months ago during a hunting trip.
We had just happened upon a herd of deer when a doe to my left cried out in agony, a sweet and bloody smell radiating from her as she crumpled to the ground and a dark, wet mound formed just under her tail. My father and I had stood in silence as she licked her new faun and caressed its face with her own.
Smiling, I had pressed my hand to his cheek and showed him the memory of my own birth, then replayed the images of the doe's labor.
"How does it work? Where do children come from?" I asked aloud.
My hand slid from his cheek as he transformed into a stuttering mess—the same stuttering mess that he had been during the argument.
Jacob, like me, had thought it was ridiculous. He had tried to convince them over and over that he didn't see me "that way".
"Yet," my parents had said in perfect harmony.
Jacob had rolled his eyes but agreed with them. True, they had banned him from sleeping in the same house as me, but they hadn't said anything about him sleeping just fifteen feet away from me, outside my window. I had always wondered how he kept this thought from my father's "sight".
Even now, I wondered why I had not thought to argue that Aunt Alice and Uncle Jasper, Aunt Rose and Uncle Emmett, and even my own parents had gotten to live together when they were sort of my age.
Jacob's loud snore that would've put a diesel truck to shame tore me from my flashbacks. But a new thought entered my mind. I would turn seven (but have the fully matured body of a seventeen-year-old) in the morning. Even though I was sure his words were meant to reassure my parents, it had always felt like I agreed with them too. Until now. Could it be possible that Jacob still didn't think of me "that way"? Suddenly, I realized that the possibility of this was unsettling—it made me...sad.
I slid out from under my blanket and crossed to the window. I crossed my arms on the sill and looked directly down upon his sleeping face. I watched him and couldn't help but smile as he grumbled and snored.
"Nessie?" his eyes flew open and gazed into mine, so alert it was as if he hadn't just been in his near-comatose state. "Is something wrong?" he asked, pushing himself up onto his knees, making his face level with mine.
Why was I just now realizing how beautiful his long black hair was against his russet skin? His broad chest straining against his gray T-shirt? The woodsy smell that swirled around me as he took my face in his hands?
"What is it?" his eyebrows raised in worry. I looked away, feeling the warmth not from his hands flood my cheeks.
He bowed to recapture my gaze, his hands still fixed on either side of my face.
I didn't know what words to use that would say how confused I felt, so I placed my hand on his face. Images of my father kissing my mother's jaw just below her ear, Uncle Emmett's hands laced through Aunt Rose's hair as they sat on the sofa watching a football game, the way Uncle Jasper always looked at Aunt Alice as if she held the sun in the palms of her hands. Then I showed him us, myself laying on my bed, him on the soil outside my window. I showed him himself telling my parents that he didn't see me "that way".
His retracted his hands from my face and fell cross-legged upon one of the surviving patches of grass.
I looked down at him, pensive in the glow of my bedroom lamp that made a dim yellow square around him.
"Don't ever doubt how I feel about you, Renesmee. It just has to be this way for now, until you're ready. Until we're ready." He steadied himself upon his knees again and craned his neck to kiss my forehead. He smiled at me and ran his fingers through my copper curls, and his eyes seemed to sparkle as if he knew something I didn't.
"Oh, and," he looked past me into my room. I looked over my shoulder to follow his gaze to the clock on my night stand. It was a minute past midnight. "Happy Birthday."


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freakns wrote:unfortunately not. while i surely am one of the biggest dicks around, i dont posses one that would fall into that category
but ty for thinking of me in that way... first CoF, now you... we might have an orgy in couple of months!
Well my friends are now calling me "Big in Japan" so I am entering in that category also. maybe we may arrange something, I am always in for that


text:
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"Grrrr, grumble," went my inner regions.
"Grrrr, grumble," went my inner regions.
"My stomach's growling," I mouthed to my best buddy Tillie. "I'm starving."
"Me, too. I wonder what we're having for lunch?"
"Tillie, Page, you two girls quit talking right this minute and get back to work," ordered eagle-eyed and -eared Mrs. Curry from her station behind the teacher's desk, where she was grading our Friday spelling tests.
"Yes, ma'am," we answered in unison as we re-diverted our attention away from our tummies and back to the rigors of long division.
An occasional glance at the clock revealed that the hands were stuck on 11:45. After interminable waiting, the lunch bell finally sounded and we kids filed out silently, (Children still filed back then) being admonished by Mrs. Eagle-eyes not to forget to say the blessing. (God was still available in schools back then.)
We followed our noses, still silently and in single-file, into the Robbins School cafeteria, where a row of aproned, smiling lunch ladies awaited us, dishing out plates full of what was then considered nutritious, filling and tasty dishes for growing boys and girls.
What was on the menu back in the day? Certainly no pizza made an appearance, for pizza was still in Italy. Tacos and chicken nuggets were unheard of; subs were what Yankees living in big cities rode around on.
We youngsters were treated to things like sauerkraut and weenies, cooked together in big metal pans, at least once a week. Meatloaf, mashed potatoes and canned peas appeared at regular intervals, as did collards, pinto beans and corn bread. (Woe to the unfortunates who sat in the back of the room near Billy Joe and Arnold, big boys who loved pintos and went back for seconds and thirds, on those long, hot afternoons.)
Goulash, that tomato, ground beef and macaroni concoction, was served on occasion, as well as my nemesis — those great big mushy white lima beans with a side of stewed cabbage. Macaroni and cheese got in on the act, presented often with something like Vienna sausages or pieces of smoked pork shoulder. There was vegetable soup, always hand in hand with a pimento cheese sandwich and crackers for crumbling.
But everybody's favorite was chicken pie. Those big metal pans were lined with crusts made extra flaky by government commodity butter and shortening, then filled with chunks of tender white and dark meat and gravy and topped with another crust. Bankers, clerks from Rayless, Efird's and Belk's, secretaries, doctors, plant managers and my own newspaperman father from The Dispatch often showed up at school for lunch on chicken pie day.
The lunchroom ladies showed off their skills at bread making, with sheets of soft, yeasty, warm rolls and crusty hot biscuits to tempt us. And many meals were accompanied by corn bread cut into squares for sopping up the pot likker.
If you ask an old-timer about apple and peach cobbler, he'll say the best he ever had was at Robbins, Grimes, Dunbar, Holt or Cecil, schools of yesteryear. He'll be right, because again using government issue commodities, school cooks created magic in the cobbler department.
Just in case there wasn't enough for all those bigs boys who lingered around in the seventh grade awaiting "quittin' school and going to work in the furniture factory or cotton mill" age, there was a table near the door. On it sat peanut butter mixed with honey or sorghum, again gratis the Feds, and stacks of saltines. You could "fill up the cracks" with all the peanut butter crackers you could eat.
All this, plus milk, for 15-cents.
It was the National School Lunch Act, adopted in 1946, which revamped the feeding of America's children with funding and farm surplus. The USDA got in on the act, of course, publishing guidelines and nutrition advice as well as menus and recipes featuring such items as liver and rice loaf, fish cereal scallop, creamed cabbage and prune betty.
Fortunately for us Southern kids, our cooks stuck to good old down home cooking.
We cleaned our plates quickly, partly because we were hungry and the food was good and partly because of the incentive of freedom on the playground until the bell rang, summoning us back to a long, boring two more hours of education.
Guess what? In spite of the butter and sugar, the rolls, pies and peanut butter, the mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese, obesity was not an issue. Maybe we should feed today's kids more apple cobbler.
Page H. Onorato is a retired teacher.


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What Scarlet Letter?
Why Christian conservatives have only admiration for Sarah Palin.
Read our complete coverage of Sarah Palin.
When I first heard about Sarah Palin's, uh, domestic irregularities, I expected social conservatives to react with a kind of qualified, patronizing support—we are all sinners, there but for the grace of God, something like that. Instead, they are embracing her with unbridled admiration. The Family Research Council praised her for "choosing life in the midst of a difficult situation." Cathie Adams of the Eagle Forum, a conservative women's group, called her "the kind of woman I've been looking for all along." The two difficult pregnancies—Palin's with a Down syndrome baby and now her unmarried teenage daughter's—is just proof that "they're doing everything right," gushes Adams. Even the stern religious right godfather James Dobson doted: "A lot of people were praying, and I believe Sarah Palin is God's answer."
Some of this reaction can be explained just by listing the religious right's priorities in order. In the pantheon of family values, avoiding abortion sits at the top, above marriage or staying home to raise your children. Conservatives have spent the last 30 years seeding the country with crisis pregnancy centers dedicated to convincing young women not to abort their babies, regardless of their personal situations. The fact that Britney Spears' younger sister made the same decision to keep her pregnancy at 17 and that Juno was a hit movie only adds an unexpected glamour to the choice.
But this explanation takes you only so far. What's missing from the conservative reaction is still remarkable. Just 15 years ago, a different Republican vice president was ripping into the creators of Murphy Brown for flaunting a working woman who chose to become a single mother. This time around, there's no stigma, no shame, no sin attached to what Dan Quayle would once have mockingly called Bristol Palin's "lifestyle" choices. In fact, so cavalier are conservatives about Sarah Palin's wreck of a home life that they make the rest of us look stuffy and slow-witted by comparison. "I think a hard-working, well-organized C.E.O. type can handle it very well," said Phyllis Schlafly, of the Eagle Forum.
Suddenly it's the Obamas, with their oh-so-perfect marriage and their Dick Van Dyke in the evenings and their two boringly innocent young girls, who seem like the fuddy-duddies.
What happened? How did the culture war get flipped on its head? Of course, conservatives are partly lining up behind Palin just so they can stay in the game. But it's not all crass opportunism. To any religious conservative, Palin, with all her contradictions and hypocrisies, is a very familiar type in this peculiar moment in evangelical history.
Starting in the 1970s, leaders such as Dobson began rewriting the rules of the traditional Christian marriage to make it more palatable in an age of feminism. Domestic work was elevated to a special calling; Christian women were told their child-rearing decisions had national implications, as they were raising a generation of righteous soldiers. Mom took on a political tinge. Home-schooling mothers dragged their large broods to volunteer in campaigns. Like with many Christian moms of her generation, Palin's résumé starts with the PTA.
In the Gingrich era, a few of the Christian mom-types, including Palin, broke out and started their own political careers. Andrea Seastrand was an elementary-school teacher elected to Congress in California in those years. Linda Smith, of Washington state, kept a blown-up picture of her granddaughters in her congressional office. I remember interviewing her one day while her husband, Vern, sat in a hard chair in a corner and gave words to the obvious contradiction: "One of the reasons we got into politics, we wanted to preserve some of the traditional lifestyle we'd grown up with," Vern told me. "It's funny, with Linda away, we end up sacrificing some of that traditional family life to pass some of that heritage to our children."
Conservative women became a powerful tool for the party, and everyone was willing to overlook the cost to their personal lives. If a conservative Christian mother chose to pursue a full-time career in, say, landscape gardening or the law, she was abandoning her family. But if she chose public service, she was furthering the godly cause. No one discussed the sticky domestic details: Did she have a (gasp!) nanny? Did her husband really rule the roost anymore? Who said prayers with the kids every night? As long as she was seen now and again with her children, she could get away with any amount of power.
The larger Palin clan, meanwhile, reflects a different trend among evangelicals. The stereotype we associate with evangelicals—intact marriage, wife at home, teenage daughter saves it for marriage—actually applies only to the small minority who attend church weekly.
The rest of the 30 percent of Americans who call themselves evangelical have started to slip in their morals and now actually poll worse than the rest of America on traditional measures of upstanding behavior—they are just as likely to live together and have kids out of wedlock, and their teenage daughters lose their virginities at an earlier age than the girls of most Americans. University of Virginia sociologist * W. Bradford Wilcox blames this partly on class differences and particularly on a lingering "redneck" Appalachian strain in evangelical culture. (I'm a "fucking redneck," wrote Levi, the father of Bristol's baby, on his MySpace page, before it was taken down.)
In that way, Bristol's pregnancy can be spun as just another one of the Palins' impeccable working-class credentials—salmon fisherman, union member, DWI, hockey mom, soldier son, pregnant teenage daughter.
The most remarkable differences between the large mass of evangelicals and the rest of Americans are in divorce statistics. Since the '70s, evangelicals and the coastal elites have effectively switched places. Evangelicals are now far more likely to get divorced, whereas couples with four years of college education have cut their divorce rates in half. An intact happy marriage that produces well-behaved children, it turns out, is becoming a luxury of the elites—bad news for the Obamas.
Correction, Sept. 5, 2008: The article originally misidentified W. Bradford Wilcox as a historian. He is actually a sociologist. (Return to the corrected sentence.)


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Beaumont/Port Arthur
Dozens of children ages 5 through 14 gathered to listen, learn and let loose Aug. 1 at the Bullying Stops Here Rally at the City of Port Arthur Health Department building.
While we harbor no disrespect for the Wall Street Journal who called us "that scrappy little paper from Southeast Texas," we prefer to think of ourselves as simple seekers of the truth. We're of the opinion that headlines and sound bites never tell the whole story. Our readers demand all the facts, facets and flavors of every story or event. And, they expect to be informed, educated and stirred to action.
For this week's New York Times crossword puzzle, pick up a copy of this week's The Examiner on newsstands now.


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Not redeemable for cash


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One of Booktopia's favourite authors, Kylie Ladd, has proven to be a deft hand at exploring uncomfortable terrain. Her wonderful upcoming novel Into My Arms is no exception.
In keeping with the theme of challenging yet brilliant reads, (and on the birthday of Vladimir Nabokov, author of Lolita) Kylie was kind enough to share her five favourite books that make us explore the darker corners around us.
by Joanna Murray-Smith
Murray-Smith is better known as a playwright, but her novel Sunnyside was long-listed for the 2006 Miles Franklin award. In it, Murray-Smith deploys her scalpel-sharp wit and insight on the moneyed middle classes, on those aspirational Australians we all know (or, wince, are). There's Molly, who wants to find inner peace by visiting the local swami ("It was a hell of an improvement on Pilates, that was for sure") but panics when she's asked to leave her new Gucci handbag in the change room; there's the couple who've got rich from manufacturing heritage paint colours that they joke to each other should be re-named 'Frowsy Suburbanites', or 'Gruesome Affluence'. There are BMWs and breakdowns, there are "forty-something yummy-mummies at Dunes by the Beach making cynical asides about their husbands. What a salad-fest that would be- rocket coming out of their diamond- studded ears. How many decades had it been since grown women ate something cooked?" For all this, Sunnsyide isn't a cruel book, but rather a deeply knowing one, and laugh-out-loud funny in parts. I re-read it often for a reality check, and for the frisson of the flinch.
Click here to see more books from Joanna Murray-Smith from Booktopia,
Australia's Local Bookstore
Another Country
by Nicholas Rothwell
This one isn't funny, and is far, far more sobering. Nicholas Rothwell has long been the Northern Australia correspondent for The Australian, and Another Country is a collection of his essays for the newspaper. In it, Rothwell details the realities and inequities of life in the top end, an Australia that is so different to the one most of us inhabit that it may as well be another country. In eloquent and moving prose Rothwell documents the effect white settlement has had on the native inhabitants of this land: the massively increased rates of suicide and violent death, the dramatically lowered life span, the loss of language and identity, the endemic kidney failure, the systematic sexual and physical abuse of young children in remote communities, the alcohol abuse, the petrol sniffing, the financial exploitation of desert painters. Rothwell never lectures, just observes, which makes this book all the more harrowing. Read it alongside The Tall Man (Chloe Hooper) and Follow the Rabbit Proof Fence (Doris Pilkington) for an Australia that you don't see in the Lara Bingle commercials.
by Vladimir Nabokov
Is this the creepiest novel ever written? Its protagonist, Humbert Humbert, initially comes across as a cultured and sophisticated man, a doyenne of taste and refinement, but turns out to be the most unreliable narrator of them all. Humbert is a middle-aged literary professor who becomes obsessed with the 12 year old daughter of his land-lady, who he in turn kidnaps, sedates and eventually molests over and over for a number of years. The girl's name is Dolores, but Humbert calls her Lolita, stripping of her of her identity along with her innocence and her childhood: ""Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita." Lolita was banned in France and the UK for its erotic content, but really isn't an erotic book at all- just a very sad one. I am glad I have read it, for its power and its prose, and I will never open it again.
Click here to buy Lolita from Booktopia,
Australia's Local Bookstore
The Winter of Our Disconnect
by Susan Maushart
And now for something completely different. Maushart is an academic living in Western Australia who became concerned when she began realising the effect that ever-proliferating technology- mobile phones, the internet, iPods and iPads- was having on her and her three teenage children; that, to use her words, the lounge room was morphing into a docking station, that we can have five or six hundred "friends" and no idea who our neighbours are. Taking matters into her own hands, she put the whole family on a digital diet: six months with no television, computers, MP3 players or mobile phones. Her diary of this time- interspersed with literature reviews covering, for example, the effects of our obsession with connection on our sleep patterns, socialising and sex lives- make fascinating and thought-provoking reading. We have plenty of computers in our house, but thanks to me reading this book we don't have wi-fi: anyone who wants to get online has to do so in a public space where every other member of the family can see what they are doing and yell at them to hurry up. My kids think we are living in the stone age, but I'm grateful to Maushart for encouraging me to think about controlling technology, not letting it control us.
Click here to buy The Winter of Our Disconnect from Booktopia,
Australia's Local Bookstore
Never Let Me Go
by Kazuo Ishiguro
I tossed up the number five spot between Sophie's Choice and Never Let Me Go, but chose the latter because really, if a Holocaust novel doesn't make you squirm, what will? Too easy. Never Let Me Go, in contrast, is set at Halisham, a boarding school in England. At first the novel unfolds as a standard, though lyrical, coming of age story. Gradually, however, the reader begins to realise that there's something else going on here… why are the teachers called 'guardians'? Why is it so important that the students keep themselves healthy? I'm absolutely not going to give anything further away other than to say that even once you've twigged as to what's going on, you can't stop reading, and the ending has stayed with me for many, many years. A bewitching and horrifying novel.
Click here to buy Never Let Me Go from Booktopia,
Australia's Local Bookstore
Honourable mentions by category… read these to make you feel uncomfortable about
Motherhood: A Life's Work (Cusk)
Marriage: Caribou Island (Vann)
Friendship: The Myth Of You And Me (Stewart)
Parenting: We Need To Talk About Kevin (Shriver)
National security: The Unknown Terrorist (Flanagan)
Sending your kids to uni: I am Charlotte Simmons (Wolfe)
Wanting it all: The Bitch in the House (Hanauer)
The family pet: Dog Boy (Hornung)
Into My Arms
By Kylie Ladd
When Skye meets Ben their attraction is instantaneous and intense. Neither of them has ever felt more in synch – or in love – with anyone in their lives. What happens next will tear them both apart. Into My Arms is a searing love story and a gripping family drama – a shocking, haunting novel in the tradition of Jodi Picoult and Caroline Overington.
The kiss ignited something, blew it into being, and afterwards, all Skye could think about was Ben. One day a woman meets a man and falls instantly and irrevocably in love with him. It hits her like a thunderbolt, and she has to have him, has to be with him, regardless of the cost, of the pain of breaking up her existing relationship. She has never felt more in synch-or in love-with anyone in her whole life. So this is how it feels, she thinks to herself, this is what real love feels like.
It's like that for him too; he wants her in a way he's never wanted anything or anyone before: obsessively, passionately, all-consumingly.
She has found her one true love, her soulmate, and he has found his. What happens next will tear them apart and unleash havoc onto their worlds.
This brave, brilliant, electrifying novel from the acclaimed author of After the Fall and Last Summer, will move you deeply and shock you to your core. Love, lust and longing have rarely wielded such power, nor family secrets triggered such devastation.
Click here to buy Into My Arms from Booktopia,
Australia's Local Bookstore
John Purcell, my two cents: I just finished Into My Arms and I can't recommend it enough. Anyone who has read and enjoyed Caroline Overington's novels or Jodi Picoult's will love it. Kylie Ladd engages the reader from the first page to the very last. One of the most interesting and moving books of 2013.
This book will get people talking – great for book clubs and reading groups. Order it today.


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Beautiful Booze: Bar Carts
Bar carts are making a huge comeback and we're 100% on board with that. Entertaining doesn't always involve booze; but typically when we do break out the bottles, bar carts make it a little easier.
Bar carts create the perfect little vignette that can spice up the look and feel in just about any room used for entertaining. Paint the cart any color you'd like — there's no wrong or right and if you are thinking about a metallic, these days gold seems to be a popular choice.
Bar carts are the perfect excuse to display a beautiful set of barware and the (sometimes!) exquisitely designed bottles provided by the spirits industry. The different bottles will eventually be used but they will add to your room's decor int the mean time.
Images: As credited above


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LaMarcus Aldridge poured in a game-tying 3- pointer late and then delivered the deciding bucket as time expired to send the Portland Trail Blazers to a 106-104 victory over the Dallas Mavericks.
The Trail Blazers rallied from a 21-point third quarter deficit before Aldridge stepped back in the corner to drain his first 3-pointer of the season and tie the game at 104-104 with 4.5 seconds left.
After O.J. Mayo was called for an offensive foul at the other end, Aldridge caught the inbounds pass and swished a fadeaway jumper as the buzzer sounded to give Portland to its third victory in four games.
With his 11th double-double in the month of January, Aldridge totaled 29 points and 13 rebounds. J.J. Hickson produced 26 points with 15 rebounds and Wesley Matthews finished with 17 points, while Portland received 10 apiece from Nicolas Batum and Damian Lillard in the victory.
"He's one of the few All-Stars that defends the best player on the other team as well as being productive on the offensive end and he showed up for us tonight," Matthews said about Aldridge.
Dirk Nowitzki knocked down a triple prior to Aldridge's 3-point make to give Dallas the lead with 11.4 seconds remaining. He finished with 26 points on 11- of-21 shooting for Dallas, which had won six of eight games coming in.
"The difference between a good team and a bad team is a couple possessions down the stretch. For some reason, we haven't found a way to win those games consistently," Nowitzki said.
Darren Collison added 17 points, Mayo scored 15 to go with nine assists and seven rebounds and Shawn Marion finished with 12 points in the setback.
Despite blowing a 21-point lead, the Mavericks seemed to have the game in hand after a 13-4 run late in the fourth staked them to a 101-94 advantage. However, Portland rallied to tie the game.
After Aldridge sank a pair of free throws, Matthews came up with a steal and converted a pair at the line before Batum buried a triple to knot the score at 101-101.
The Trail Blazers trailed 69-48 in the third but came all the way back to take the lead midway through the fourth at 90-88 following a triple from Ronnie Price and four straight points from Sasha Pavlovic.
However, Nowitzki immediately put Dallas back in front by draining a triple to spark the 13-4 run, which featured a 27-foot desperation bank shot from Collison with the shot clock winding down.
Dallas carried a 59-42 lead at halftime after closing out the second quarter on a 19-6 surge, with Collison hitting two 3-pointers while scoring the Mavs' final 10 points of the period.
The Mavericks started the third well in building their edge up to 21, but shot just 2-for-8 over the final six minutes of the period.
Portland went on to outscore Dallas by 11 during the stanza and reduced its deficit to 80-74 as Batum, Lillard and Luke Babbitt each hit a three 3-pointer as the Trail Blazers finished the quarter on a 19-6 run.
Game Notes
Portland improved to 16-8 at home this season and will begin a home-and-home series in Utah on Friday ... The Mavericks scored 100 points for the ninth consecutive game ... Each team committed 16 turnovers ... Dallas shot 8-for-15 from 3-point range, while the Trail Blazers made just 10-of-28 from long distance.


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Police issued a community alert Wednesday warning of cellphone robberies this month near the 35th-Bronzeville-IIT stop.
Police say two men have been robbing people of their cellphones near the Green Line stop, which has been seeing more traffic since the CTA closed the southern section of the Red Line for five-month track renewal Sunday.
The incidents occurred on or near CTA property at about 9:35 a.m., Friday, in the 0-100 block of West 35th Street, and about 3:18 p.m., Monday, in the 3500 block of South State Street.
The alert described the attackers as being black men, 13 to 18 years old, 5 feet 5 inches to 5 feet 7 inches tall and 140 to 180 pounds.
Anyone with information should call the Area Central Bureau of Detectives at (312) 747-8380.


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Women and HIV Viral Load
July 27, 2015
Table of Contents
What Is a Viral Load?
HIV attacks immune system cells called CD4 cells. HIV enters these cells and turns them into virus factories that produce thousands of copies of HIV. As the virus grows, it damages or kills CD4 cells, weakening your immune system.
Viral load is the amount of HIV (number of viruses or copies) in your bloodstream. The higher the amount of HIV, the more your immune system becomes damaged.
Viral load can be measured by several different lab tests: a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, a branched DNA (bDNA) test, or a nucleic acid sequence-based assay (NASBA). All these tests are accurate, but each has a different way to measure the amount of virus. It is best to stick with the same kind of test and not switch among them, or it will be difficult to compare results over time.
Viral load results are reported as the number of copies of HIV in one milliliter (ml) of blood. The lower the number, the less virus there is in your blood. Numbers can range from several million copies to as few as 20 copies. If you have fewer than 50 or 20 copies, your health care provider may tell you that your results are "undetectable."
Being undetectable is a great result because it means your virus is under control. However, undetectable does not mean that you have been cured of HIV or that you cannot pass it to others. It just means that there is not enough HIV in your bloodstream for the test to measure. It is also important to know that labs that test viral load have different cut-offs below which they cannot detect HIV. For example: you could have 35 copies of HIV in your blood, and in lab #1, which cannot detect any HIV below 50 copies, your viral load would be considered 'undetectable.' However, in lab #2, which cannot detect any HIV below 20 copies, your viral load would be considered detectable.
How Are Viral Load Results Used?
Viral load tests are an important tool to:
One goal of HIV treatment is to keep viral load levels as low as possible for as long as possible. This gives you the best chance of staying healthy. With effective HIV treatment regimens, viral load can be reduced to undetectable in many people. This is a great result. It means that your HIV drugs are working and you are doing a great job taking them. However, HIV is still in your body. If you stop taking your HIV drugs, the virus usually starts reproducing and your viral load will increase.
While a lower viral load generally means you are less likely to pass HIV to others, it is important to know that even with an undetectable viral load you might infect someone else with HIV if you share needles or have unprotected sex. Researchers recently found that, in heterosexual ('straight') serodiscordant couples (one person is living with HIV and the other person is HIV-negative), having an undetectable viral load greatly reduces the chance of spreading HIV to the uninfected partner. By combining the results of several studies, researchers calculated that, in 1,000 serodiscordant couples who had sex for one year, if the partner living with HIV was taking HIV drugs and had an undetectable load, then only one or two HIV-negative partners would become infected with HIV.
Related Stories
This article was provided by The Well Project. Visit The Well Project's Web site to learn more about their resources and initiatives for women living with HIV. The Well Project shares its content with TheBody.com to ensure all people have access to the highest quality treatment information available. The Well Project receives no advertising revenue from TheBody.com or the advertisers on this site. No advertiser on this site has any editorial input into The Well Project's content.
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We have a few spaces left for our new and exciting Hours D'oeuves & Tapas 3 day class. Click here to enroll in the last spots to learn from our well renowned Executive Chef. You will be the hit of your next party with such dishes as Stuffed Olives and Shrimp and Garlic. This will make you the topic of the party and you will be able to complete over 30 dishes with ease. We have just a few rooms left during this week and we would love to include you in our latest class. Join us to make memories and friends that will last a life time!
Tags: Cooking Classes, hours d'oeuves, tapas


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BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union foreign ministers say they have agreed to open free trade negotiations with Japan.
Cyprus' commerce minister Neoklis Sylikiotis, whose country holds the bloc's rotating chairmanship, says Thursday talks could start in the next few months. They are likely to last about three years.
EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht says an agreement would generate about 400,000 jobs in Europe and boost GDP by 0.8 percent.
The EU is looking at ways to spur growth as many countries struggle under a weighty debt burden.
The EU is also close to concluding free trade agreements with Canada and Singapore, and is looking at ways to boost trade with the United States, which currently amounts to about €1.8 billion ($2.3 billion) a day.


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Corrections on Breece's hometown and Holkham transaction
In The Hook's Sold column on November 7, 2002, the sales price of the house at 2408 Holkham Drive in Lewis Hills was listed incorrectly. The correct price was $380,000.
Back on September 12, in our special feature on late writer Breece D'J Pancake, mention of his West Virginia hometown was murky. According to his mother, Helen Pancake, Breece was born in South Charleston but raised in Milton.


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Meet The Next Breakout Actors Of 2014
New faces are always needed to keep moviegoers from staying home from the theaters, turning off their televisions and opening their books instead. Well… that probably won't happen. But regardless, every year new actors and actresses make the big jump from relative obscurity to being followed around by paparazzi. In honor of these up-and-comers, let's take a look at the next breakout stars of 2014.