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Thursday night is once again, and for the next many weeks, "Comedy Bang! Bang!" night on IFC, with sweater-wearing host Scott Aukerman and bushy-haired "bandleader" Reggie Watts your guides to a world in which most anything can happen. Last week, to coincide with the (20-episode!) third-season premiere of this strange and deceptively ambitious talk-show-shaped meta-sketch-comedy, in which each character (some representing themselves, some not) seems to exist in a private parallel universe, I interviewed Aukerman, whose long-running namesake podcast was the series' inspiration. Not only a comedian but an organizer of comedians and a creator of occasions, having staged shows at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and various rented spaces before that, Aukerman -- also the co-creator of the Zach Galifianakis-hosted "Between Two Ferns" -- had much more of interest to say than print allowed. Here is some of it.
You've had the rare experience of directing the president of the United States, when he appeared on "Between Two Ferns" to promote the Affordable Care Act.
Scott Aukerman: It was interesting because I was wondering if I would be allowed to. I actually went to the White House person in charge and said, "Am I allowed to even talk to the president? Am I allowed to approach him?" And they were like, "Yeah, of course you are. But why would you?" I was like, "To direct the video." They were like, "What would you want to direct?" I said, "Well, if we need to do it again." They were like, "Why would he need to do it again?"
If he wasn't funny the first time.
Yeah, I didn't want to say that. I was just kind of like, "If there's a mistake where he got a piece of the information wrong," and that made sense to them. It was bizarre trying to give notes to the president, and I was told that he wouldn't really want to redo anything, but he was very game for it.
Did he know the show?
We thought he did. We were told conflicting things coming in. One that he was about to watch it for the first time; No. 2, that he knew it; No. 3, that he had no idea what it was. And then he walked into the room and he shouted "Two Ferns!" and put us at ease, like, "Oh wow, he knows what he's in for." Then I read an interview with him where he said that he had no idea what it was and said to his daughters that night, "I just did something, I think it's called 'Two Ferns.'" And we found out that he didn't really know what it was. But I know that the people at the White House briefed him very well and told him the attitude to play and what the vibe of it was. He was very well prepared to do that and threw in a lot of his own stuff.
He was way easier than some of the Hollywood actors we've worked with. To the White House's credit, they wanted it to be like a normal episode; they didn't want it to be this kind of canned advertisement. They were actually very protective of that. We put it together and Zach and I were like, "We love this, but they're going to ask us to cut out all the jokes." They called it a masterpiece, actually. We were like, "OK! Great!"
You grew up in Orange County. What effect did that have on your comedy or career path?
Growing up in Orange County, it feels like L.A. and Hollywood are a million miles away; there's no clear pathway to being in show business when you're down there. I went to the Orange County High School of the Arts because that was the only place to do any kind of creative acting or anything like that; but it was very focused on sending people to Broadway.
And you weren't interested in that?
Well, I was. I grew up in musical theater and singing; I went to an acting conservatory where I focused on musical theater, and I did it around the country for about a year. But the whole time I really wanted to break into filmmaking -- I didn't think I could break into comedy necessarily, because that seemed just ridiculous, I didn't know how to break into that at all.
You weren't a teenage stand-up?
I tried it one time when I was 18, and I grew up loving it, but it also seemed like this faraway dream. I think when you grow up wanting to be in the arts you take any lifeline people will throw you; and because I was relatively good at singing, people would accept me into their school or give me a scholarship to their college. And so you go down that pathway because it's the only one you really know. But when I was 25 I basically gave up on musical theater and moved into North Hollywood, because I was like, "North Hollywood? That's Hollywood, right?" And luckily a friend asked me if I wanted to perform in her friend's comedy show, and I just kind of fell into it.
You were writing jokes?
I had been writing plays and trying to write screenplays without a lot of success. I had thought comedy was like Jerry Seinfeld, observational humor, and luckily I saw a couple of things the same week that my friend asked me to do her friend's show. There was an Andy Kaufman special on NBC, and it blew my mind. And then I saw David Cross and Bob Odenkirk perform -- it was one of the live shows they did in town to get "Mr. Show" -- and I was like, "Oh, the stuff I do around the house just to annoy friends actually is a part of comedy and these people are doing it." I really found a kinship with the alternative comedy scene.
When I started doing comedy in 1995, the Upright Citizens Brigade wasn't here yet, and the scene to me was people like Margaret Cho, Janeane Garofalo, Bob and David, Patton Oswalt, Greg Barron, Paul F. Tompkins, Mary Lynn Rajskub -- she hosted the show the very first time I did stand-up. We all hung out together every single night and performed somewhere every single night, but we didn't have a theater to do that; we didn't have a central location. Any time I wanted to do a sketch show I had to go rent Theater/Theater on Cahuenga and Hollywood; I had to rent the Acme and pay $200 a night to give tickets away to anyone who wanted to come. I also had to buy beer to give away so that they would come.
What's great about the UCB is that it's a destination. When it first started we could throw any kind of experimental thing up there -- now it's so popular that you have to fight to get a show. What's cool is how young the audience is -- when I was doing the show there, there'd be 15-year-olds in the front row every night -- which proves you're doing something viable. Comedy in general is super-important to young people, because they're still trying to define what they think about the world. It's almost like rock music in that way. The fact that our show has the lowest median age on IFC is very important to me. It's cool that when I go out on tour and meet the fans afterward that there are so many young people; it's really inspiring.
Do they know you through the podcast or the show?
The podcast mainly and sometimes the TV show. The podcast is really an amazing way to communicate with people -- it's the best thing that's happened to comedy since …. comedy albums, I think, maybe since comedy specials on HBO. Because finally comedians can truly be niche, and have a niche audience and have that translate to something really important. Back in the day if you were a comedian you'd travel to a club hoping that people had heard of you, that they would be on your same wavelength. Nowadays because of my podcast I can go on tour, sell out theaters from 500 to 1,300 -- all people who know exactly who I am and what to expect, and they're just there to have a good time. And it's like that for every comedian now; you can reach a niche audience who will show up to support you, merely because you're putting out this thing that's free that really speaks to them.
Comedy has never got the same kind attention that drama has; I used to think it was not as important. A lot of comedians have parents, who are like, "Why are you getting into this? Why are you bothering?" But I think it's very important. I had a brother who passed away, and the day he died our family was there and very shocked and didn't really know how to process it; we went back to our house, where we'd all been staying, and there's really not a lot sometimes to do when you're trying to process your feelings. And we turned on the TV and there was an episode of "Malcolm in the Middle" that I remember my friend Dave Higgins was on, and he was being really funny. And I remember my dad laughing at it. And to me that is kind of the purpose of art and comedy in a way, to relieve the tension and kind of take your mind off how ... life is.
When people find something funny it's because they latch on to a point of view that speaks to them for some reason; they don't even know how to express it sometimes. Why do some people like "The Big Bang Theory" and some people not? It's just that they were born with different brains, had different experiences. One thing I'm proud of is that I never see any reaction on Twitter of, like, "That show's OK." People love ["Comedy Bang! Bang!"] or they hate it, which tells me that we are going for it. If people don't like it, I'm totally on board with that. But if it were just, like, "Yeah, it's fine," then I would feel like I wasn't doing the job.


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Old-Time Nostalgia
Classic Instruments' series features a raised accent ring in the center complemented by the custom-built, handmade chrome pointer. Alternating diamond indices give this series a rich, classic feel. The beautiful color combination captivates a nostalgic, vintage finish on the series. This series comes with stainless high-step bezels, curved glass, and is available in several combinations of instruments.
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Black Magic
These Victor Series water pumps feature a black powdercoating with a textured surface for a unique appearance. The coating also gives these water pumps a durable protective layer that will keep them looking great for years. Match with Edelbrock black powdercoated air cleaners, valve covers, carburetors, and intake manifolds for a complete new and unique look for any engine bay.
Edelbrock Victor Series water pumps are cast in their ultramodern foundry and made from A356 aluminum and heat-treated to T-6 spec. They feature a heavy-duty 3/4-inch integral ball/roller bearing that offers low friction for improved performance and a billet steel hub for extreme durability. A six-vane powdered metal precision cast impeller improves coolant flow and ensures equal distribution to both sides of the block. A heavy-duty seal ensures leak-proof operation and a long life.
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Cast In Iron
The Hooker LS cast-iron exhaust manifolds from Holley Performance Products are the perfect solution for exhaust in a tight engine bay or where the maintenance-free characteristics of manifolds are desired. They are designed to hug close to the engine block so they fit into a wide variety of replacement and engine-swap applications. Their contoured design aims the exhaust directly at the exit port for improved flow. Being cast iron means they will provide years of leak-free performance with less underhood noise than traditional headers. Plus, their shorty design means you can route exhaust tubing close to your frame and floor pan for maximum ground clearance. The manifolds are available in five finish options, including Cast Iron Gray Ceramic, Silver Ceramic, Titanium Ceramic, Black Ceramic, and As Cast.
Holley Performance Products
Makin' It Fit
Trans-Dapt Performance Products has unveiled a new line of Engine Swap Motor Mount Kits and Transmission Crossmembers with rugged, ultradurable polyurethane mounting pads.
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Trans-Dapt also offers a wide variety of transmission crossmember kits with Polyurethane pads. Crossmembers are manufactured out of 0.114-inch-thick wall tubing, are MIG welded, and include all necessary mounting hardware. Vehicle-specific crossmembers include putting C4, C6, and TH350 automatics in '53-64 Ford pickups and putting TH400 automatics in S-10 pickups and Blazers. Universal models are available for 700-R4, 4L60E, T56, and other transmissions in standard height or with an optional 3- or 6-inch drop, and are designed for use with 26- to 36-inch wide-open channel framerails.
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Internal Drum Brakes
Wilwood Engineering's new 11-inch Internal Drum E-Brake Rear Kits are perfect for enthusiasts who have original smaller-diameter rear wheel sizes. This kit will work with 15-inch diameter wheels and will also work with many 14-inch wheels that are designed to clear disc brakes.
The kit features Wilwood's special internal drum parking brake design that allows an efficient parking brake system that's easy to install and a snap to hook into the stock parking brake cable system. The kit features a forged billet Dynalite caliper in red, black, and polished finish for a show appearance. The kit also features an 11-inch rotor that works with the internal brake assembly. The rotor is available in a standard smooth design or slotted and drilled. This kit has been designed to fit all of the rear axle assemblies that they offer rear brake kits for, as well as the stock Tri-Five Chevy axles. The forged billet Dynapro caliper in this kit will work harmoniously with all Wilwood front brake kits.
Wilwood Engineering
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Power to the Cable
Ron Francis Wiring created their new underhood cross-link one-gauge cables that have a temperature rating of 255 degrees F (underhood temperatures vary from 212 to 240 degrees F). They offer more current-carrying capacity and less voltage drop, making them far superior to typical auto parts store or welding cable. Their high-grade lugs stay round longer, ensuring a tight seal and corrosion resistance. The kit comes in top post (PN TP-6) or side post (PN SP-6) and includes 6 feet of color-coded positive and negative cables (longer kits for trunk mount also available). Each cable includes matching rubber boots for added protection and a more finished look. All kits also come complete with a crimping tool, extra lugs, and heat-shrink tubing.
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Hot Rod Interiors by Glenn offers custom upholstered creepers. Each creeper is made to exact specifications matching your vehicle's interior, exterior, business brand, or just about anything else you can think of. From tuck 'n' roll vinyl to full leather, your name or logo custom embroidered, even metal car emblems can be placed into the upholstery. Each creeper is upholstered by hand so no two are alike.
They are available in two different frame styles; a 40-inch frame with an adjustable headrest and red solid nylon wheels with ball bearing swivel casters or the Craftsman 36-inch solid frame with black, ball bearing roller wheels. Both are black powdercoated for durability. Other colors are available upon request. Every creeper's hardware is polished. Contact Glenn for a quote on your custom creeper.
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Hi-Po Coil Springs
Viking Performance unveils its line of ultralightweight, high-travel, high-performance coil springs. Viking springs are manufactured in the United States to precision tolerances from high tensile spring steel. All Viking springs are engineered to provide the ultimate in consistent performance and are lifetime guaranteed to remain within 2 percent of the original free height and rate. Viking springs are very competitively priced since they are priced based on actual material used.
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Bulked Up
Holohan's Hot Rod Shop (HHRS) now produces these sheetmetal stampings for recessing Vintage Air inline firewall bulkheads.
These stampings, when grafted into a firewall, sinks in the Vintage Air billet bulkhead so that the bulkhead is flush with the face of the firewall when done. The stampings are done in-house and are stamped from 18 cold-rolled sheetmetal and have plenty of flange to work with when positioning. More stampings are on the way for all the Vintage Air bulkheads and will be available from HHRS soon.
These are only available through HHRS and are ready to ship and priced at $34.95 each plus $8 (shipping and handling) and can be ordered by calling direct.
Holohan's Hot Rod Shop
(704) 450-0607

subset: commoncrawl


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In recognition of Claude Lévi-Strauss' accomplishments and his recent award from the Smithsonian, the AAA is launching a series of short posts by anthropologists whose lives have intersected with this theoretical giant. Best known for introducing structuralism into the discipline, Lévi-Strauss has contributed greatly to our understanding of non-Western cultures and remains a passionate defender of the humanity of all peoples. He is a prolific author and has published more than 20 books, including Tristes tropiques (1955), The Savage Mind (1962), Structural Anthropology (1958; trans. 1963), and Mythologiques I-IV (1961-1971). We hope these posts offer a glimpse into how the life and work of Lévi-Strauss has influenced scholars today.
The first post in this series is by Sidney Mintz, the William L. Straus Jr. Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, and Research Professor, Department of Anthropology, Johns Hopkins University.
The James Smithson Bicentennial Medal awarded to Claude Lévi-Strauss is a much-deserved honor that appropriately recognizes his key contributions to the field of anthropology.
I came to know Professor Lévi-Strauss in the early 1970's when I was affiliated with the Laboratoire d'Anthropologie Sociale, while teaching in the Sixième Section of the École des Hautes Études.
Then, one day in 1976, I was called to the office of the president of Johns Hopkins to be told, in that gentleman's rather summary fashion, that the institution wanted to bestow an honorary doctorate upon Professor Lévi-Strauss; and asked whether – as the senior member of the neonatal Department of Anthropology — I could "get him."
I told the president that since I knew Professor Lévi-Strauss, I thought I might persuade him to visit, but that there was a condition. I explained that he was a reluctant traveler, and would perhaps be easier to persuade, were I able to offer him travel on the Concorde. I can tell you that, quite frankly, it was to my utter amazement that the president did not hesitate to accept that condition. I had made it all up.
I was supplied with a chauffeured car to welcome Lévi-Strauss when he arrived at Dulles, and it turned out to be a spectacularly successful visit for the five of us in our tiny Department, founded just a year earlier. Our joy was doubled when the president, once introduced to his guest, took me aside and told me to "look after him" for the balance of his visit.
I was able to write the presentation speech that accompanied the awarding of his doctorate; to see to it that a daily bouquet of pansies stood by his bed; and to arrange a faculty dinner for him at home, composed of Maryland's special culinary joys (starting with Chesapeake oysters and Maryland crab, and accompanied by some 1972 white Hermitage, selling at the time for a prohibitive $12 a bottle). Professor Lévi-Strauss pronounced our oysters superior to those in France. We were privileged to hear him on several occasions, not least when he very generously spoke to our graduate students, who will surely never forget that occasion, now more than three decades ago.
Jim Boon phoned me to arrange for an interview, to which Lévi-Strauss had already agreed. Jim wanted to hold it in the hours immediately preceding Lévi-Strauss' departure, and suggested the NPR offices in D.C. I told him that was impossible because getting from downtown Washington to Dulles in afternoon traffic, limousine or no, would not work, and that Lévi-Strauss did not like tight schedules. (I had not made that up.) I suggested the Air France first class lounge instead; I supposed that they could throw out everybody else, particularly since Marvin (Harris) had written that our guest was a French national treasure.
To my astonishment, it worked! They did throw everybody else out. I sat in the lounge with Professor Lévi-Strauss, telling him jokes to keep him entertained, while they got the cameras and microphones ready, and then after I offered my sincere thanks, we said goodbye. I need hardly add that I have never forgotten a minute of his visit.


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I've been on spring break for the past week, so this is even older news than it would have been, but Alex Chilton died earlier this month. If you don't know who Alex Chilton is, he started off as the singer of the Box Tops, who scored a late-'60s hit with "The Letter." But in certain circles he's better known as the lead singer and songwriter for the defining power pop band, Big Star. Big Star's music was a formative influnce on me as a person, if not as a mathematician, so I'm breaking from my usual routine of crackpot mathematics and expository articles to pay tribute.
Most of what I could say has already been said better, so I'll link to some other tributes shortly. People have talked about how Big Star were a major influence on all sorts of bands in the '80s and '90s up to the present, from R.E.M. to the Replacements to Elliott Smith. People have talked about the timeless nature of Big Star's songs, about how "Thirteen" is maybe the ultimate expression of what it's like to be that age. But one thing that's perhaps been lost in the chatter is the fact that so much of Chilton's work with Big Star is just plain wonderful music. Witness "Nighttime" and "Blue Moon," back-to-back tracks from Big Star's final album, Third (also known as Sister Lover) — to my ears, two of the most achingly beautful pop songs ever recorded.
The best tribute I've read — maybe the definitive one — is Paul Westerberg's in the New York Times. (Westerberg wrote and performed, with the Replacements, the song that gave this post its title.) But the best possible tribute, in my mind, would be if this blog post turned one person on to the music of the late, great Alex Chilton. It might change your life. More likely it won't. But either way, it's great damned music, and I hope — and expect — that it'll live on far after I'm gone.
Tags: alex chiilton, big star, children by the millions, music, non-math, replacements


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By Peggy Aulisio
By Peggy Aulisio
FAIRHAVEN — The Planning Board's public hearing on proposed changes to a wind turbine bylaw is bound to draw a large turnout Tuesday, Feb. 12.
"It's a total rewrite," said William Roth, the town's planning director, of the changes to the bylaw.
Mr. Roth said one of the most significant changes is limiting output to 660 kilowatts. The two industrial wind turbines on town land are 1.5 megawatts each.
Another big change is to the setbacks. In the earlier bylaw, the setback was just one time the height of the turbine. Now it's "four times the height to the tip of the blade," Mr. Roth said.
The maximum height to the tip of the blade is 265 feet. The turbines on town land are close to 400 feet to the tip of the blade.
For large-scale turbines, the site must be at least 10 acres. The new bylaw makes reference to the shadow or flicker effect, which the earlier one didn't.
It says the turbines "shall be sited in a manner that minimizes shadowing or flicker impacts. The applicant has the burden of proving that this effect does not have significant adverse impact on neighboring or adjacent uses."
Mr. Roth said, "The current bylaw didn't have that."
As far as the noise level that would be allowed, the bylaw says turbines must comply with the Department of Environmental Protection's limits for "broadband sound levels" of no more than 10 decibels above the existing ambient or background noise.
Wayne Hayward, chairman of the Planning Board, said the "crux" of the bylaw is "height and setbacks."
Some have advocated for Fairhaven to adopt a six-decibel threshold as other communities have done in Massachusetts. Mr. Hayward said that would come under the Board of Health.
He said the Planning Board doesn't have the technical expertise to do the kind of sound testing the DEP has been conducting for months for the town's wind turbines.
Mr. Hayward said limiting the height and kilowatts and increasing the setbacks will go a long way to addressing the problems residents have now with the large turbines off Arsene Street.
He said the revisions limit the maximum size of a wind turbine to what can be found today at UMass Dartmouth, Mass Maritime and Hull 1. He said those "don't seem to be getting" the complaints that the ones are here.
"The goal here is to still allow these as reliable green energy, but until they get the sound settled (as far as decibel limits the DEP requires), we're going to try to limit them to something that doesn't cause a problem."
Mr. Hayward said Fairhaven is too small a town to have 400-foot turbines. He said while most people in town don't have a problem with the ones off Arsene Street, "They don't live near them."
Mr. Hayward said it is likely with New Bedford possibly becoming a "major staging area" for offshore wind turbines that developers might be looking at waters off Fairhaven. He said the bylaw covers the town's waters, not just land. He pointed out that developer Jay Cashman wanted to build turbines in Buzzards Bay near the islands and connect to a grid on Egypt Lane.
Mr. Hayward said he isn't aware of anything pending like that but, "Developers like him are still out there."
On the other hand, he said, with all the controversy in Fairhaven over the wind turbines, he doubts Fairhaven would be anyone's "first choice at this point."
Under the Planning Board bylaw, the health board would be responsible for responding to noise level complaints and could require the owner or operator, at their expense, to hire an independent acoustical engineer to do a sound study.
The Planning Board would be the granting authority for the special permit required for wind turbines. It could grant waivers of any regulation if abutters agreed to them. The waivers have some opponents concerned.
The bylaw has different classifications for smaller wind turbines, like those used to provide energy to a single building or house.
The complete draft of the proposed bylaw is available on the Planning Board page on the town's website. The Planning Board also posted other documents online. One shows a graphic display of the different sizes of wind turbines. The other compares the old and new bylaws.
Mr. Hayward said documents will be handed out at the hearing, which begins at 6:30 p.m. in the Town Hall banquet room.


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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Among the stocks that could see active trade in Tuesday's session are Ista Pharmaceuticals Inc., Dollar General Corp. and Landec Corp.
Companies on deck to report results include Walgreen Co. WAG, +0.00% Lennar Corp. LEN.B, -0.49% LEN, -1.01% U.S. Homes Systems Inc. USHS McCormick & Co. MKC, -0.72% PVH Corp. PVH, +0.31% Oxford Industries Inc. OXM, -1.63% Christopher & Banks Corp. CBK, -0.26% Charming Shoppes Inc. CHRS, +4.83% Neogen Corp. NEOG, +0.35% Robbins & Myers Inc. RBN, +1.94% and Willdan Group Inc. WLDN, +2.56% among others.
Standard & Poor's said Vasco Data Security International Inc. VDSI will take the place of O'Charley's Inc. CHUX in the S&P SmallCap 600 index after the close of trading on April 2, in line with impending completion of an acquisition of O'Charley's. In addition, S&P said Aon Corp. AON, -1.02% will remain in the S&P 500 index following its reorganization into Aon PLC, with each Aon Corp. common share to be exchanged for a Class A ordinary share of Aon PLC before the opening of trading on April 2.
Also late Monday, Ista Pharmaceuticals ISTA, -2.43% agreed to be acquired by privately held Bausch & Lomb for about $500 million in cash, the companies said. The buyout price of $9.10 a share works out to a premium of 8.6% over Irvine, Calif.-based Ista's closing price in Monday's regular trading session. The deal's expected to close in the second quarter.
In a deal bringing together two California-based companies doing business in optical technology for telecommunications and data communications, Oclaro Inc. OCLR agreed to acquire Opnext Inc. OPXT via a stock swap. Terms call for Opnext stockholders to receive 0.42 of a share of Oclaro common stock for each common share of Opnext they own. The deal carries a value of nearly $43 million, based on Monday's closing prices. Pending shareholder votes and U.S. regulatory approvals, the transaction's expected to be completed within three to six months. Upon completion, Opnext stockholders will own about 42% of the combined company.
Dollar General DG, +0.15% said it would sell 25 million common shares in a secondary public offering. Certain stockholders are putting the shares up for sale, and Dollar General won't receive any proceeds. Underwriters will have the option to buy up to nearly 3.8 million additional shares from the stockholders, the Goodlettsville, Tenn.-based deep discounter said.
The board of Crown Crafts Inc. CRWS, +1.57% approved a doubling in the Gonzales, La.-based company's quarterly cash dividend on Series A common stock. The new dividend of 8 cents a share will be paid July 6 to stockholders of record as of June 15, Crown Crafts said.
Monday earnings recap
Landec LNDC, -0.21% reported net income of $4.8 million, or 18 cents a share, for the third quarter ended Feb. 26, up from $2.3 million, or 9 cents, earned during the same period in fiscal 2011. Quarterly revenue generated by Menlo Park, Calif.-based packaging company reached $80.1 million from the prior year's $73.5 million. Earnings per share and revenue both exceeded analysts' consensus forecasts as compiled by Thomson Reuters. In addition, Landec's management now foresees full-year revenue growth of 9% to 10%, up from an original projection of 5% or better, and now pegs earnings growth on an adjusted basis at about 40% as opposed to projected growth of 30% to 40% previously.
Results reported by Apollo Group Inc. APOL, -1.69% showed the for-profit education company swinging to a second-quarter net profit of $63.9 million, or 51 cents a share, from a year-earlier loss of $64 million, or 45 cents a share. On an adjusted basis, the Phoenix-based company said it would have posted earnings of 58 cents a share for the three months ended Feb. 29. Quarterly revenue fell to $969.6 million from the prior year's $1.05 billion. Analysts, on average, had forecast earnings of 39 cents a share on revenue of $933 million, according to a Thomson Reuters survey. Apollo Group also said it expects to generate consolidated net revenue of $4.1 billion to $4.3 billion for all of fiscal 2012, with operating income pegged at $625 million to $725 million, excluding the impact of special items. Further, the company said it was notified last week that an informal Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry initiated in October 2009 has been completed and that SEC staff doesn't intend to recommend any enforcement action by the commission.


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Oceania : Australasia : Australia : Victoria : Melbourne
Melbourne is the second-largest city in Australia and the capital of the state of Victoria. Located on the southern coast of Australia?s eastern seaboard, it is perhaps Australia?s most cultured city. The city?s features include Victorian-era architecture, many cultural institutions such as museums, galleries and theaters, and large parks and gardens. Its 3.9 million population is multicultural (large Greek, Italian, Jewish, Vietnamese and other immigrant groups) and sports-mad.
Melbourne is set to host the XVIII Commonwealth Games 1 (http://www.melbourne2006.com.au/) from 15 - 26 March 2006.
The settlement of Melbourne commenced in 1835 when settlers from Tasmania purchased land on Port Phillip Bay and the Yarra River from the Aborigines. In 1837 the streets of central Melbourne were carefully laid out, with some streets 30 meters wide. The first governor, Charles La Trobe, arrived in 1839 ? his cottage still stands and can be visited in Kings Domain. The year 1851 was a landmark for Melbourne - the colony of Victoria became independent from New South Wales and very soon after gold was discovered in Victoria, sparking a huge goldrush. Aspects of goldrush history can be seen at the Gold Treasury Museum, housed in the Treasury Building built in 1858. Gold was the catalyst for several decades of prosperity lasting through to the late 1880s and examples of the ornate Victorian-era structures built during this time still stand. In 1888 the property boom collapsed and Victoria suffered the depression of the 1890s. Throughout the gold and building booms Melbourne managed to retain its many and spacious parks and gardens and these remain to this day.
In 1901 the British colonies of Australia became an independent federation and Melbourne the temporary capital of Australia. The Federal Parliament met in the Parliament House of Victoria from 1901 until 1927 when Canberra was founded. After World War II Melbourne grew rapidly, its till-then mainly Anglo-Celtic population boosted by immigration from Europe, particularly Greece and Italy. Today Melbourne has the biggest Greek city population (over 800,000) outside Greece and the biggest Italian city population (over 230,000) outside Italy. The significant pre-war Jewish population was also boosted after the war. From the mid-70s many immigrants came from South-east Asia, particularly Vietnam and Cambodia. Melbourne has had a Chinese population since the goldrush of the 1850s and Chinatown has existed from that time but the population of Chinese and other East Asians has also been boosted by immigration in recent years.
New high-rise buildings replaced many of Melbourne?s interesting old structures in the building boom of the 1970s and 80s. Melburnians belatedly recognised the loss of their architectural heritage and steps were taken to protect what was left. Construction of the huge Crown Casino (briefly the largest casino in the world) in the 1990s upset many Melburnians with its introduction of a crass gambling culture and the sucking of money from the rest of the city. Melbourne?s development continues in the 2000s with the opening of the Melbourne Museum, Federation Square and the Docklands precinct.
Melbourne considers itself the cultural capital of Australia (many Sydneysiders would dispute this claim strongly....), a boast supported by its large number of art galleries and a strong coffee culture2 (http://melbournecoffeereview.com/). In addition to the Melbourne Museum, there are special museums dedicated to subjects such as science, immigration, Chinese history, Jewish history, sport, racing, railways, police, fire brigades and banking. Melburnians are sports enthusiasts and particularly passionate about Australian Rules football 3 (http://afl.com.au/), a sport invented in Melbourne. Horseracing is another passion and the majority of the state has a public holiday on the first Tuesday of November for the racing of the Melbourne Cup 4 (http://www.melbournecup.com/), one of the world?s famous horse races. Cricket is the big summer sport and the Melbourne Cricket Ground (the 'MCG') 5 (http://www.mcg.org.au/) is one of the cricket world?s leading grounds. Each January Melbourne hosts tennis?s Australian Open 6 (http://www.ausopen.org/), one of the world?s four Grand Slam championships. In March, Melbourne hosts the first race of the Formula One season 7 (http://www.grandprix.com.au/). The race is held in Albert Park in South Melbourne.
Get in
By plane
Melbourne International Airport 8 (http://www.melair.com.au/) (MEL), located 22 km north-west of the city centre at Tullamarine, provides regular access from all major Australian cities, as well as many international destinations across Europe, America, Asia and the South Pacific region. Note that due to Australia's distance from most parts of the world, many international flights may go via an Asian hub (for example Singapore, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur or Tokyo) or a Pacific Hub like Auckland, and/or transfer in Sydney.
Taxi between the airport and the city centre cost around $35-$40 and take about 25 minutes when traffic is no problem.
Skybus 9 (http://www.skybus.com.au/), tel 9670 7992, runs a 24x7 shuttle to and from the Spencer St coach terminal at the west end of the Central Business District, just north of Lonsdale St. The trip takes 20 minutes and is the fastest way between the airport and city by road (it uses an enhanced freeway route with bus lanes). It costs $13 adult, $5 child 17 and under, $26 family. There are two airport pickup locations. One is outside the South (Virgin Blue) terminal, 50m from the international terminal. The ticket desk is just inside the South terminal. The other ticket desk and shuttle stop are outside the Qantas domestic terminal. Frequency ranges from hourly during the wee hours to quarter hourly from about 6:30am-7:30pm (always on the quarter hour). They also run a connection service between the terminal and central hotels during the day (M-F 6am-8pm, Sa-Su 8am-6pm). Book hotel pick-up 3 hours ahead. Bookings are not needed for travel from the airport to hotels.
If you're flying with budget carrier Jetstar, Avalon Airport (http://www.avalonairport.com.au/) may be your port of call as it services flights from Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide (other JetStar arrivals fly into Tullamarine). Avalon Airport is located 55 km to the south-west of Melbourne. Sun Bus Australia (http://www.sunbusaustralia.com.au/) operates a shuttle service to Melbourne's CBD at $19 per adult one way. The Avalon Airport Shuttle (http://www.avalonairportshuttle.com.au/) provides a service to other areas of Victoria from $12 per adult one way.
By train
All intercity rail services from interstate and intrastate destinations operate to and from Southern Cross Station (known as Spencer Street Station until December 2005), located on the western edge of Melbourne's central business district. The station is currently undergoing renovation.
Train rides from major cities take about 10 hours. CountryLink (http://www.countrylink.info/) operates a twice daily service from Sydney (10½ hours away), though this may soon be cut to daily. Great Southern Railway run four services a week from Adelaide (10-11 hours away).
Services from cities within Victoria are operated by V/Line. These services operate from regional centers such as Geelong, Ballarat, Albury, Bendigo, and Sale (in Gippsland). Note that V/Line also operates bus services which connect with these trains.
VicLink (http://www.metlinkmelbourne.com.au/) is a handy website to manage your state-wide travel on trains and buses across Victoria. Regional Victoria's public transport is controlled by VicLink (http://www.viclink.com.au/).
By car
From Sydney, the quickest route is the Hume Highway, which takes about 11-12 hours (non-stop). A more popular, longer route is along the coast on the Princes Highway. This adds several hours to the journey as it is longer in distance and there are fewer bypasses.
Adelaide is slightly closer, and can be reached in 9-10 hours. Once again, it is possible to go inland or along the coast - the coast is very scenic, but will add a couple of hours to the journey.
Although not often travelled, a direct journey from Brisbane takes around 24 hours (non-stop) and takes you further inland through areas not commonly visited (along the Newell Highway). This makes an interesting alternative to the more common Brisbane-Sydney-Melbourne coastal route.
By bus
Bus services to Melbourne from out of state are provided by Firefly Express (http://www.fireflyexpress.com.au) and Greyhound (http://www.greyhound.com.au) (incorporating McCaffertys).
Bus services within Victoria are operated by V/Line, and operate from most major and many minor Victorian towns. VicLink (http://www.viclink.com.au/) is a handy website to manage your state-wide travel on trains and buses across Victoria.
By boat
Melbourne can be reached from Devonport, Tasmania by car/passenger ferries run by Spirit of Tasmania (http://www.spiritoftasmania.com.au/). The journey takes 10 hours and runs every night (in both directions), departing at 9pm and arriving at 7am. During the peak of Summer, there are also day sailings (departing 9am, arriving 7pm) on many days - check in advance.
Ticket prices depend on time of year and your sleeping accommodation. A seat (no bed) is the cheapest, starting (in off-peak season) from $108 for adults and $82 for children. Bear in mind, the seat is most uncomfortable, equivalent to a cinema seat. Cabins with bunk beds start from $187 adults, $97 children. Peak season costs are about 25% higher. Cars cost $59 all year round.
Get around
By public transport
Melbourne?s public transport system "Metlink" is comprised of trams, trains and buses: trams service the central city and inner suburbs, trains service the suburbs, and buses where there are no tram or train tracks. A single ticket (called a "Metcard") allows travel on all three modes of transport.
The "Met Shop" in the Melbourne Town Hall, on the corner of Swanston St and Little Collins St provides timetables and brochures, and sells tickets, maps and travel merchandise (open 8:30am-5:00pm Monday to Friday, 9am-1pm Saturday). The Met Information Centre, ph 131638 (131MET), every day 7am-9pm, provides information and the Metlink website (http://www.metlinkmelbourne.com.au/) also provides information including maps, fares and zones and all timetables. Metcards are also available from:
Metcards are divided into "Zones", with Zone 1 covering the central city and inner suburbs (and consequently almost the entire tram network), Zone 2 covering the middle suburbs and some outer suburbs, and Zone 3 the remaining outer suburbs and the Mornington Peninsula. Almost all tickets are time-based; that is, they can be used for the given period of time from the first time you use it. The following are the most useful tickets (and some idicative costs) for travellers:
Concession Metcards are available for all children aged under fifteen years, but concessions for older students are only available to Victorian residents who have paid for a student concession card. A concession Metcard costs roughly half the price of an adult Metcard.
Before each journey, and sometimes to gain access to the station platforms, a metcard must be "validated" by inserting it into a validation machine. On trams, the metcard must be validated after boarding the tram; however, tickets purchased on the tram (from the machine) are already validated. Note that a two-hour metcard that is validated for the first time after 6:00pm (18:00) is valid for the rest of the night, so if you?re heading out after 6pm for an evening?s entertainment, don't buy or validate a day ticket.
Services generally operate between 6:00am and midnight. After midnight on Saturday and Sunday mornings only there are NightRider buses which run defined routes to the suburbs. Tickets are $6 except for Mornington ($8) and Melton ($8.20) and Metcards are not valid.
The free City Circle (http://www.metlinkmelbourne.com.au/city_circle/) trams run around the CBD perimeter, covering Flinders St, Spring St, Nicholson St, Victoria St, La Trobe St and Harbour Esplanade. They run in both directions every 12 minutes every day except Good Friday and Christmas Day from 10am-6pm, and until 9pm Thursday-Saturday during daylight savings. Several of the trams on this service are equipped with recorded commentary about attractions passed. They are geared to visitors and are a great introduction to central Melbourne.
By bike
Melbourne has an excellent network of bike paths, making pedal-power a great way to take in the city. Most paths are dedicated to cyclists and skaters, although some trails contain on-road sections (in marked bike lanes). It is illegal to ride on footpaths unless otherwise marked, helmets are required by law, and take care of slippery tram tracks.
The main paths of interest to travellers are:
Detailed maps of the bike path network can be found here (http://goforyourlife.vic.gov.au/hav/articles.nsf/pages/bicycle_maps_metropolitan_melbourne?open).
Bikes can be hired from Hire a Bike on the Yarra River Bank just over the river from Federation Square, ph 0417 339 203.
By car
The cheapest car rentals are from places like Rentabomb (http://www.rentabomb.com.au/) but use may be restricted to the Melbourne metropolitan area although they now have new cars also.
Mid-range rental companies give good value. Try:
The more pricey major chains are well-represented. These include Avis, Budget, Europcar, Hertz, Thrifty.
Please beware of rental car Insurance conditions in Australia. You will pay excess on accidents, even if they are not your fault.
Driving in the city shouldn't be attempted without at least a basic map! Melbourne has a great city road map Melways (http://www.ausway.com/m31.html) which has won many international prizes for its excellent presentation. Most Melburnians will give you their Melways reference along with their address on written invitations.
Drivers should watch out for hook turns in the inner city areas, where one must make a right turn from the left lane. (See Wikipedia:Hook turn).
Central Melbourne
Central Melbourne (the Central Business District (CBD) and nearby) attractions are arranged here more-or-less on a route starting in the south-west, proceeding east along Collins St, covering Swanston St from the Yarra River to Victoria St in the north, then going through Chinatown to Spring St and finishing at the south-east corner of the CBD.
Southbank & South Melbourne
Attractions listed from west to east are:
Carlton and Fitzroy
St Kilda & Elsternwick
Organ Pipes National Park
A small national park located just to the north north-west of Melbourne on the way to Bendigo. Contains walking trails and rock formations including the ?organ pipes?, hexagonal columns of basalt, the Rosette Rock (a radial array of basalt columns like the spokes of a wheel) and the Tessellated Pavement, the tops of basalt columns. http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au/1park_display.cfm?park=167
Werribee is about 30 minutes drive west south-west from Melbourne, off Princes Freeway which runs to Geelong. Werribee Park Shuttle runs from Melbourne to the attractions for $15 per person.
You Yangs
You Yangs Regional Park is 55 km south-west of Melbourne and 22 km north of Geelong. Access from Princes Freeway is via Little River if coming from Melbourne and Lara if coming from Geelong. Open 8am-4:30pm year round and from 8am-6pm on weekends and public holidays during daylight saving. Four main walks traverse the park. The 3.2 km walk to Flinders Peak (348m) takes 90 minutes and gives good views. The longest track is the 3 hour Branding Yard Track. http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au/1park_display.cfm?Park=208
Most people take on hospitality jobs around the St. Kilda area.
Melbourne is the Fashion Capital of Australia without a doubt. Bridge Road (http://www.bridgerd.com.au/home.asp) is a strip where warehouse direct outlets rule and no one pays recommended retail price. Chapel Street in South Yarra is a favourite among the locals, with its spread of exclusive boutiques, cafes and well established chain stores. In the CBD itself, Little Collins Street is home to some of the world's top designers and fashion houses; Collins St also boasts a Louis Vuitton outlet. Brunswick Street features an eclectic mix of vintage, retro and alternative gear for the more adventurous. There are also several huge shopping complexes in the suburbs, such as Chadstone (dubbed "the Fashion Capital") in the South-East and Knox City in the outer East. and With its numerous Shopping Malls and boutique lined streets, Melbourne has more than enough to keep the most avid shoppers happy!
For the culinary traveller, Melbourne is one of the best destinations in the world. There is an abundance of affordable, high quality restaurants representing almost every cuisine — though authentic Mexican is a notable weak point. While prices have increased in recent years, eating out remains noticeably cheaper than in Western Europe or the United States.
Excellent eateries can be found sprinkled throughout all of the inner (and some outer) suburbs, while certain neighbourhoods have become magnets for residents and restaurants of particular countries.
Some random ideas:
If you're in Melbourne for more than a couple of weeks, and wish to sample the cuisine in a studious fashion, get a copy of "Cheap Eats in Melbourne" from a book shop. Serious epicureans can move up to "The Age Good Food Guide". The online restaurant guide FoodGod (http://www.foodgod.com.au/) is also available, and has reviews of a number of eateries in Melbourne by local residents.
Caffeine lovers rejoice, for Melbourne is a city of cafes. Fuelled by the passion of Italian migrants arriving in the aftermath of World War II, Melbourne's lauded cafe culture makes it one of the few cities in the world where an espresso is never more than a few metres away. Thousands of cafes, ranging from the bohemian and cool of Fitzroy to the Euro-chic glamour of Collins Street or the traditional coffee houses of Carlton, are waiting to dispense half-froth decaf-a-chinos, soy lattes, or just a high-fuel espresso. All caffeine addicts have to fear in Melbourne is a case of the jitters.
While it would be impossible to list all the cafes in Melbourne, below is a tiny selection of the cafes well-regarded for brewing an (almost) perfect cup:
The past decade has seen revival of Melbourne's inner-city bar scene, with dozens of weird and wonderful watering holes opening up within forgotten alleyways and anonymous lanes of the CBD. Melbourne also has its fair share of stylish places to drink, although the better ones can be hard to find. The theory seems to be: the harder your bar is to find, the more people will talk about it.
A comprehensive listing of Melbourne's bars and pubs can be found at the useful Melbourne pubs (http://www.melbournepubs.com/) website. Highlights include:
Around Grand Prix time (early March) hostel accommodation is booked out and some hostels raise prices. Be sure to book ahead for that period.
Central Melbourne
North Melbourne
South Melbourne
St Kilda
After a fire gutted the original building in 2001, most of Melbourne's grand General Post Office (250 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne; Phone: 13 13 18; Fax: 9203 3078; Mon-Fri 8.30am to 5.30pm, Sat 9am to 4pm, Sun 10am to 4pm; australiapost.com.au (http://www.australiapost.com.au)) has now been turned into an upmarket retail precinct, but it still has a range of postal services including post restante.
Telstra payphones are easily found through the city, but many are being phased out due to growing mobile phone ownership. These phones are coin-operated or use prepaid Telstra Phonecards, which are available from most convenience stores or newsagents. International calling cards are also available at these outlets.
Mobile phone coverage within the CBD and surrounds is usually good-to-excellent. Melbourne's area code is 03.
Internet cafes are dotted throughout the city, especially near the backpacker enclaves of St Kilda and Flinders Street. Speeds are usually excellent and rates range from $5 - $12 per hour. Some of the best include:
Stay safe
Like most Australian cities, Melbourne is relatively safe and in fact boasts the country's lowest per-capita rate of violent crime. Usual big-city precautions like avoiding dark alleys after sunset should apply, but otherwise your visit should be hassle free.
Melbourne's red-light districts include King Street in the CBD and Grey Street, St Kilda, but you're more likely to face drunken revellers and unwelcome approaches from street walkers than any major threat. Melbourne City Council has also recently established all-night "Safe City" taxi ranks with security guards on King Street, outside Flinders Street Station and on Bourke Street.
Get out
Melbourne is more-or-less centrally located on the coast of Victoria, and there are many natural and manmade attractions close enough to easily visit in a day's return drive. These include:
Melbourne Area(less than an hour's drive each way)
Northern Victoria
Eastern Victoria
Western Victoria
External links


text:
While most of the bottom 244 draft picks have signed, only three of the top 10 are under contract.
At least one of them has no idea when his deal will be done. According to WECT-TV, Cardinals offensive lineman Jonathan Cooper is "uncertain" as to the status of his negotiations.
"I put it in my agent's hands and they kind of do what they do and I play football," Cooper said.
The seventh overall pick, Cooper could end up facing a request that he include offset language in his guaranteed money. It's one of the only sticking points in rookie deals; players in the top 20 (or so) get fully-guaranteed, four-year deals. Most of the players in the top nine get to keep their money and whatever they'd earn from another team, if they're cut during those first four years.
Some teams resist double dipping. Last year, the Dolphins insisted on the use of offset language at No. 8, with quarterback Ryan Tannehill. This year, the Dolphins at No. 3 (Dion Jordan), the Eagles at No. 4 (Lane Johnson), and the Browns at No. 6 (Barkevious Mingo) are expected to try to insist on offset language.
The Jaguars at No. 2 (Luke Joeckel), the Lions at No. 5 (Ziggy Ansah), and the Rams at No. 8 (Tavon Austin) have agreed to remove it this year.


text:
What's better then a Turkey Craft made from kids hands!! Kids love how they can transform their hand into a Turkey for thanksgiving! It's also a fun and festive decoration to hang around the house.
Creating arts and crafts helps give meaning to the holidays for kids. It makes for wonderful memories and they love to have their work displayed around the house!


text:
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International Customers
My Account
Contact Us
Clove Technology stocks a range of accessories, including official CAT accessories. Clove also sells a range of high quality third-party accessories from manufacturers including Proporta, Case-Mate, Otterbox, Brodit and more.
For friendly, honest advice on smartphone accessories, including cases, screen protectors, batteries, cables, chargers and cradles, email firstname.lastname@example.com or telephone 44(0)1202 552936.


text:
Barkeeper's Friend is an abrasive cleaning powder, similar to Comet, that is renowned for its ability to clean stainless steel pots and pans. I've always heard that it can clean stains you would think were there forever, so I figured I'd give it a shot with my well-worn tea kettle:
As you can see, there are some pretty nasty black stains flecked around the bottom of the kettle, quite a bit of brown crud caked on underneath that, and an overall cloudiness to the finish everywhere else.
By reading the directions on the side of the Barkeeper's Friend label, you can see that it recommends a couple of different ways to use the product:
1. wet the item to be cleaned so the powder will stick to it better, sprinkle on some Barkeeper's Friend, then scrub vigorously with a damp rag
2. mix Barkeeper's Friend with water to make a paste and then spread that onto the surface of the item to be cleaned and let it sit for a minute or so, then scrub vigorously with a damp rag.
I tried both methods.
The first method is faster, obviously, but I found its performance underwhelming. While cloudiness was greatly reduced after scrubbing, much of the brown crud remained and the black stains were completely unaffected. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take a picture after this treatment. You'll have to just take my word for it.
The second method is kind of a hassle, but it's worth the extra time and effort. In addition to clearing up the cloudiness, this method also removed the vast majority of the brown crud and helped somewhat with the black stains, though a noticeable amount of black staining still remains after scrubbing.
Here's how it looked after cleaning:
Substantially improved, but far from perfect.
I also scrubbed the scorched bottom surface of the kettle using both methods and left a section cleaned only with regular soapy water as a control:
Again, method 1 certainly helped, but method 2 was much more effective. However, even method 2 wasn't able to completely clean up everything.
If you have any questions, drop me a comment.


text:
After being delayed for a year as the result of my wife's close call with a box jellyfish and subsequent illness (still not quite resolved), we're off to Seram on Monday for the full expedition. This will be the second site we plan to sample for our current NSF-funded research on the biogeography and ecology of Indonesian trees. I hope to post a number of (nearly) live blog entries during this trip, although we expect to be offline for much of it, far even from any cell phone signal.
Seram is in the Maluku group of islands, the fabled 'Spice Islands' of the past, and still a major supplier of the world's nutmeg, mace, cinnamon, and cloves. It's east of Wallace's Line, with a biota similar to New Guinea, although floristically the Maluku islands are closer to the others in 'Wallacea' (van Welzen et al. 2011) than to New Guinea. We hope to capture the signal of this biogeographic turnover in Asian and Australian plant clades (evolutionary lineages) with our sampling of forest trees. To minimize variation in clades due primarily to soils among our five sites, we will be trying to match rock substrate as far as possible: we'll avoid limestone and try to locate mid- to low-fertility sites on granite- or sandstone-derived, well-draining soils. This can be difficult in eastern Indonesia, where so many of the islands are either volcanic or young limestone (from raised reefs). However, the wide plain of north central Seram occurs over Pleistocene coastal sand deposits, and the foothills of the metamorphic Kobipoto massif are widely overlain by sandstones (Payton 1993). We're also looking for local variation in elevation, so we can site some plots on drier ridges and some in moister valleys, but all below ca. 400 m ASL.
When I first visited Seram on a 'recce' trip last September, I was struck by the great extent of remaining forest compared to the devastated land in Borneo. However, much of the lowland forest was an almost mono-dominant stand of a valuable dipterocarp, Shorea selanica, and logging concessions to the east and west of the Manusela lowlands have been operating for many years (Kinnaird et al. 2003). While the permitting requirements for working in National Parks in Indonesia are significant, most of the remaining intact forests are still in protected areas and our five sample sites will probably all be located in parks. On my recce and during the short collecting trip carried out by Endro and Acun in April, the director and staff of Seram's Manusela National Park were very supportive and welcoming, and we look forward to working with them again.
Overall, we are being steered towards a target sample site in the foothills of the Kobipoto range, a day or two's walk inland from the north coast, probably along the very wide, pebbly riverbeds that drain northwards (open this KML file in GoogleEarth). I'm particularly drawn to visit the village of Elemata, which appears on GoogleMaps/Earth as a cluster of ten thatched houses in a small clearing 20 km up the Wai Isal river. Where are their fields? How do they travel in? I'm aware that this satellite image was taken in 2005. A lot could have changed in seven years, let alone since the last botanical collecting survey (Kato & Ueda 1988) passed through in 1985, led by Professor Kato of the University of Tokyo.
Preparations have been underway for several weeks now. While Seram is not really remote (there is a road along the north coast, and there is mobile phone reception in Wahai), setting off into the forest for six weeks, not knowing exactly where we are going, does make one feel a certain kinship with the 'explorers' of the last century. We'll have to solve challenges of route finding, camp building, supply chains, cash caching (no ATMs past Masohi on the south coast), and health issues. We must deal sensitively with the expectations of team members and local villagers, and patiently with local government representatives. Our 'warm up' trip into Gunung Palung last year serves as a template for our research methods and will guide us in purchasing sufficient supplies. But compared to Kalimantan, I don't know Maluku at all—weather, local customs, bugs, prices—and I am aware of all the things that could go wrong. I do hope I won't have to report on this blog that I'm back home after two weeks, having sustained some serious mishap.
One of the main ways that today's collecting trips differ from those of the last century is our use of electronics. I've been cramming maps into my new GPS unit (see another post on this) and downloading and organizing a PDF library of articles. Over the past few years I've been scanning all the relevant botanical books I can find and now have a good digital library that fits on a tablet computer. Not that we need to identify things in the field, but it makes it more fun, and should increase our efficiency slightly by alerting us to which species are very common and not in need of collection. We'll also bring the photos of collections that Endro and Acun made in April. As with other aspects of Maluku life, I don't know the flora, and will be very excited to get many new 'personal firsts' for plant genera. Our species management model—doing leaf matching via photographs in the field (explained in detail here)—means we also need digital cameras and laptops. The drawbacks of being dependent on all these gizmos are that they're heavy, they break, they don't like rain/rivers, and they need power. As with last time, we'll bring a small gasoline generator into the forest with us. Now if we can just remember the extra spark plugs!
Next post hopefully from Masohi, in southern Seram.


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Pharmaceuticals may be a modest piece of the health care pie, but modest doesn't mean insignificant. HMOs and pharmacy benefit managers, often working together, continue to put pressure on physicians to prescribe, and pharmacists to dispense, certain drugs. The formulary is the best-known device; many patients now know about this list of approved drugs. But there are many ways — involving prescriber, dispenser and consumer — in which cost-effective drug use is encouraged. (Data for 1997 and 1998 are projections.)
The levels differ, but the trend is the same.
The open formulary is waning, the closed formulary gaining. Employers, who must be responsive to employees, understandably lag behind HMOs and PBMs, but they're moving in the same direction.
Source: PHARMACY BENEFIT REPORT, TRENDS AND FORECASTS, 1997 EDITION, NOVARTIS, EAST HANOVER, N.J.


text:
New video released after Chase Bank crash in Wyoming
Police say the video "captures the at fault vehicle northbound on Division Ave., driving left of center, and leaving the roadway. It does not capture the impact into the bank." ...
Published By: WZZM Chanel 13 - Wednesday, 10 October, 2018
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text:
Worship, Music & Arts
Contact us at email@example.com or 610-693-5145
Worship Time
Sunday 9am
location 480 Big Spring Rd.
What's expected of me?
Be open to believing that Jesus loves you!
Who else will be there?
Young & old, single & attached, city & farm, rich & poor, handicapped accessibility is excellent. Ample parking, no curbs, no streets to cross, fully accessible worship, restrooms, faith formation, service and fellowship.
Check-out what's happenning next! Come join-in!
Monday, March 11, 2019 from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM


text:
July 1, 2008
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Yale men's soccer coach Brian Tompkins will welcome eight freshmen to New Haven this fall. The members of the Class of 2012 come from as close as Avon, Conn., and as far as Bend, Ore.
"This is a solid class that we think will help address some of the most pressing tactical needs from last season," Tompkins said. "They are a talented group, and once they settle in I expect they will make a big impact."
Here is a closer look at the Class of 2012:
Sam Bekenstein M/F 5-9 165 Wayland, MA Wayland HS
Three-time Dual County League all-star at Wayland High School... Team captain as a junior and senior... Helped lead team to the Eastern Massachusetts finals in his freshman year and to the semifinals as a sophomore... Played club soccer for FC Greater Boston, which won the state championship in 2003... Father, Joshua, is a 1980 Yale graduate and played lacrosse.
"I selected Yale because I know it will be a challenge. I also was impressed with its storied past and great academics."
Matt Chesky GK 6-2 190 Holyoke, MA Deerfield Academy
Recorded 13 shutouts in his last two seasons at Deerfield Academy... Had a 0.94 goals against average in 2007... Named All-New England Prep School Soccer Association as a senior... A two-time All-Western New England Prep School selection... Helped lead the team to an 8-3-6 overall record as a senior... Played club soccer for Western United... Served as the team captain in 2007... Team finished second in the Oakwood Premier Invitational in 2007... President of the Deerfield Academy chapter of China Cares, which raised more than $10,000 to fund emergency surgeries and care for orphans in China.
"I'm excited to attend Yale because it offers me a unique opportunity to attend one of the best colleges in the country while playing for a nationally competitive soccer program. The coaching staff at Yale is one of the best out there. For me, having a goalkeeper coach like Coach Kostelis is something that not many schools can offer."
Chris Dennen F/M 6-1 170 Bronxville, NY Bronxville HS
Bronxville High School's all-time assists leader with 66... Named all-state as a senior... Four-time all-league selection... Chosen all-section three times... Two-time team most valuable player... Led the section in assists as a senior... Scored 15 goals and added 22 assists in 2007... Finished his career with 44 goals... Helped lead Bronxville to two league titles... Team reached Section 1 finals in 2006 and 2007... Played club soccer for the Yonkers United Tornadoes, which won the 2007 State Cup and captured the 2006 Dublin Cup... Captained the Bronxville basketball team and earned all-league honors.
"Yale will provide me with vast intellectual opportunities, as well as allowing me to be part of a great athletic program. I am excited about everything the Yale community has to offer. Additionally, the players are a great group of guys, and I look forward to playing for Coach Tompkins."
Marcus DiLallo D 6-2 185 Wellington, FL Wellington HS
The 2008 Palm Beach County Player of the Year at Wellington High School... A two-time first team all-state selection... Three-time all-county and all-conference selection... Four-year varsity starter... Named team MVP as a senior... Two-time team Defensive MVP...Holds school record for most career games (110), starts (108) and wins (90)... Scored six goals and added 24 assists in his career... Named an NSCAA Adidas Scholar All-American as a senior... Wellington was a four-time district champion, reached the state final in 2007 and had two undefeated regular seasons during his career... Team captain for the Wellington Wave Soccer Club, which reached the Florida State Cup semifinals in 2008... Older brother Matt is a punter for the University of Colorado football team.
"Yale offers a world class education as well as a strong Division I soccer program. Coach Tompkins seems like a great guy, and I look forward to working with him and the rest of the guys over the next four years. I also heard New Haven has some of the best pizza in the country."
Andy Hackbarth M/D 6-1 185 Bend, OR Summit HS
A first team all-state selection as a senior at Summit High School... Earned all-league honors in each of his four years, including two first team selections... Scored 13 goals and added 12 assists as a senior... Finished his career with 28 goals and 38 assists... Summit qualified for the state playoffs in each of his four years... Plays club soccer for the Westside Metro Gunners, which won two state championships and is a two-time regional semi-finalist... Traveled to England, Denmark and Germany with club team and played youth teams of top professional clubs... A nationally ranked alpine ski racer before deciding to focus on soccer.
"Yale offers an unmatched combination of athletics and academics. I also felt comfortable from the moment I stepped onto the campus."
Joseph Mensah D 5-11 165 Avon, CT Phillips Academy
A three-year letterwinner at Phillips Academy... Scored two goals and added five assists as a senior... Assistant captain in his senior year... Phillips Academy was in the top 10 in New England Prep School Soccer in all three of his years... Played for the Oakwood Soccer Club... A former Connecticut ODP state team player... Father, Joseph, is a 1979 Yale graduate and was a four-year letterwinner for the men's soccer team.
"For me, Yale has it all - great academics, tradition and prestige. I was also attracted to its excellent location and symbiotic relationship with the city of New Haven. Moreover, it has always been my dream to continue the family tradition of Yale men's soccer players."
Charlie Neil M/F 6-4 190 Dallas, TX St Mark's School
Holds the St. Mark's School of Texas career goals record with 76... Led the team in scoring three straight seasons... Four-time all-conference selection... Team captain... Named team MVP as a senior... Scored 27 goals as a senior... Finished his career with 33 assists and 185 points... St. Mark's was the Southwest Preparatory Conference runner-up in 2008, losing the championship game on penalty kicks... Played club soccer for Comets 90 Blue from 2004-08... Team was two-time Disney Soccer Showcase champions... In addition, played for Solar 90 Red... Will also play baseball at Yale... Father, Jim, is a 1976 Yale graduate and also played both soccer and baseball... Older brother, Trip, played soccer at Johns Hopkins.
"I chose Yale because of the opportunities that it presents. Yale is a place where I can achieve my goals and raise my expectations for the future. It provides a unique balance of academic challenges along with the demand of Division I athletics."
Charlie Paris F 6-4 185 Venice, CA Santa Monica HS
A first team All-CIF selection in 2008 at Santa Monica High School...Named first team All-Ocean League as a senior... Chosen as team's 2008 Offensive Player of the Year... Led team in scoring with 19 goals, four assists and 42 points as a senior... Scored 23 goals and added eight assists in his career... Helped lead Santa Monica to the first undefeated season (29-0-1) in school history... Team won CIF and California state championships and was nationally ranked... Played for City Soccer Club, Galaxy Alliance and most recently the Santa Monica United Scorpions, which was the 2008 State Cup champions... Identical twin brother, Robbie, will be a freshman at Harvard and will compete on the track and field team.
"Part of why I selected Yale was because my parents went there, but a larger part has to do with the exceptional quality of the school. I was definitely looking for a small liberal arts school, and Yale encompasses the perfect blend of the small, East Coast college experience that I think will be a great growing environment for me. I'm really excited for what Yale has in store for me and even more excited to play soccer at the Division I level."
Report filed by Tim Bennett, Yale Sports Publicity


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Delacroix LA's Leading Source for House Shoring Services
Ace House Leveling offers house elevation, lifting, shoring and leveling solutions for homeowners in the Delacroix LA area. Have you noticed signs of an uneven or shifting foundation? Our expert contractors have the experience and know-how to handle house leveling and foundation repairs correctly and cost-effectively, fortifying your home and its longevity.
Recognizing the signs of a weak foundation can help you avoid further damage and take the right steps towards securing your property. Laying the groundwork for a sturdy structure is the best way to protect your investment and make sure that your home or business is safe and secure. It is important to contact the professionals to investigate the cause of the issue for proper diagnosis and repair. Ace House Leveling has been serving homeowners in and around New Orleans for more than 40 years. We offer free on-site inspections where we can quickly determine the level of damage and what repairs are needed.
Why is House Leveling So Important?
A home is only as secure as its foundation! A house that is slowly sinking is prone to a number of problems that will inevitably get worse without the proper attention. Moving foundations will ultimately lead to cracking walls, bowing floors, and an increasingly unstable foundation. This will not only reduce the value of your home, it can prevent future remodeling and updating, making maintaining your home a nightmare.
House Leveling and Shoring Services in Delacroix LA
Your foundation will eventually settle over time, and in that time there will be some movement. House leveling and shoring ensures that your foundation remains secure by ensuring that after any movement takes place, weight is equally distributed.
As a homeowner, realizing that your house may need leveling or foundation repairs is not the best news, but it's extremely crucial that you get the repairs your home needs before any further damage occurs. Signs of a shifting home may be easy to ignore now, but it is a problem that can cause serious issues in the future.
If your home or business is sinking, it's only a matter of time before your foundation - and your property - will be permanently damaged. Our team can provide a permanent solution to protecting your property through expert foundation elevation services. We will raise your home anywhere from a few inches to a few feet - whatever it takes to ensure that your foundation is protected from any future sinking, cracking or damage.
The First Step: A Complete Foundation Assessment for Your Property
Before any work is done, Ace House Leveling, LLC will perform a complete assessment of your property and foundation. Our inspection will ensure that we identify all issues and create the most effective plan of action for protecting your property. Before any work is done, we will provide a thorough report and estimate for your approval.
The most important decision you can make for the future of your home is choosing a foundation leveling and repair contractor with experience and credibility. Beware of fly-by-night contractors with no local history and inexperienced house leveling contractors that don't take the necessary steps to correctly level your property. Not only do we have the latest equipment and a high level of attention to detail, but we go the extra mile to relocate your plants, secure your property, and provide countless other details that set us apart from the competition.
Hear directly from our customers!
"Awesome job! Used Ace House Leveling for the remodel of my house a couple of months ago and the results were even better than I had imagined. Everyone I worked with in the company were so helpful and more than a pleasure to work with. I would definitely suggest Ace House Leveling to anyone looking to remodel or repair the foundation of their house." Elena B.
Contact Ace House Leveling for an on-site inspection and estimate to get started on your project today!


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WATCH: Four New Clips From Kellan Lutz's THE LEGEND OF HERCULES
I'm looking forward to seeing Summit Entertainment's THE LEGEND OF HERCULES as it is a 3D production and from the looks of the clips it emulates GLADIATOR to a fair degree in the arena - which I love. Imagine seeing GLADIATOR in 3D? Yeah, me too. This should look amazing!
You many be aware that there are two variations of HERCULES coming up - this one is director Renny Harlan's starring Kellan Lutz.
Here is the storyline for the movie:
Lutz stars as Hercules, the mythical Greek hero, demigod and son of Zeus. Betrayed by his King and sold into slavery, Hercules must use his formidable strength to fight for his freedom and return to his true love, Hebe, the Princess of Crete (played by Gaia Weiss).
THE LEGEND OF HERCULES opens on January 10, 2014.
Check the clips:


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Ke$ha writes tribute essay about Danny McBride's TV character
KE$HA has penned an ode to her favourite TV character for the new issue of Rolling Stone magazine, revealing she'll miss Kenny Powers when U.S. comedy series EASTBOUND & DOWN ends after its current season.
The Die Young singer admits she's "obsessed" with Danny McBride's irreverent former baseball star character, and she feels she can relate to the "all-American hillbilly white-trash hero" on a "really deep level" - and she's upset she never got the chance to make a cameo on the show, like Marilyn Manson, who agreed to appear without his ghoulish make-up on a recent episode.
In her Rolling Stone essay, the pop star writes, "(Powers and I) are both oblivious, missing social cues about what's appropriate. We both have a really dark and obscene sense of humour, which my publicists tell me I have to tone down.
"But Kenny doesn't tone it down. He owns that s**t. I am proud to be his female embodiment.
"I always wanted to guest on Eastbound - just be some trashy girl on the Jet Ski with my shirt off."


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Paris Fashion Week is still happening, and street style maven/Vogue Nippon editor-at-largeAnna Dello Russo is still pulling out all the stops. Here's Anna arriving at the Chanel Spring 2015 show in a complete runway look from Chanel Fall 2014. Her shoes, of course, are Chanel's Tweed Sneaker Boots, which were one of the most memorable pieces from the season's runway.
Anna's even carrying a Chanel supermarket basket, lest we forget what the theme of the Fall 2014 show actually was. I usually love Anna's totally over-the-top fashion choices, but I so loathe these shoes–even the words "tweed knee-high high-tops" send a twinge down my spine. This is a style I would expect to see on the clearance rack at a Journeys, and not so much on the Chanel runway.


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NHL Game Night: 1-18-10 Lightning at Hurricanes
That was outstanding. The Lightning played hard and they played under control.
Antero Niittymaki allowed 2 goals on 22 shots for the win.
First Period
TB 11:07, Malone 20 (Foster, Veilleux)
Second Period
CAR 16:28, Cullen 9 (Whitney, Staal)
TB 18:55, Lecavalier 12 (Meszaros, Halpern)(PP)
Third Period
CAR 4:07, LaRose 2 (Gleason)
TB 9:11, Downie 11 (St. Louis, Smaby)
For one of the rare times in the past two seasons, the Lightning did not panic whenever the opposing team got a goal to even things up. They stayed under control, and they went right back to work to retake the lead. That's exactly the way they need to play down the stretch to piece together enough points to make the postseason.
Paul Szczechura had 2 penalty minutes, 2 shots, 1 hit, and 2 blocked shots in 13:41.
Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.
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A full sized, 1000 person ruined vault deep beneath New Vegas.
This alpha release is for demonstration purposes. The Min version contains all files to play Vault 24.
Only registered members can share their thoughts. So come on! Join the community today (totally free - or sign in with your social account on the right) and join in the conversation.


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Did you know that rapper Random, AKA Mega Ran, crafted a single dedicated to Capcom's recently released Mega Man 10? Well you do now, and you've got the new music video to prove it.
I've always been slightly fond of rap, but I've traditionally found myself liking it more when mixed with other genres, especially chiptune. There's just something about the power of the spoken word mixed with primitive video game noises that just gets me all riled up and ready to kick some arse, from the comfort of my own couch, of course.
Like the song? Download the single for $.99 on iTunes right now.
Mega Ran's "Here We Go Again" Music Video [Capcom Unity]


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32 to Hospital After Glasgow Helicopter Crash
GLASGOW, Scotland — Scottish
emergency workers were sifting
through wreckage Saturday for
survivors of a police helicopter crash
onto a crowded Glasgow pub that has
killed at least one person and injured
more than two dozen. The number of
fatalities is expected to rise, officials
The Clutha pub, near the banks of the
River Clyde, was packed Friday night
and a ska band was in full swing when
the chopper slammed through the roof.
Search and rescue teams are hoping to
find survivors even though police
couldn't say for sure whether people
were still trapped inside the pub. The
crash happened on the eve of St.
Andrew's Day, Scotland's official
national holiday.
"This is a black day for Glasgow and
Scotland but it's also St Andrew's Day,
and it's a day we can take pride and
courage in how we respond to adversity
and tragedy," Scottish leader Alex
Salmond said.
Chief Constable Stephen House
confirmed that overnight 32 people
were taken by ambulance to hospitals
in following the crash.
"Sadly at this time I can also confirm
one fatality," he told reporters. "We
expect that number to increase over the
coming hours."
House said specialist teams are working
to make sure everyone is recovered
from the scene, where revelers were
packed into the pub to hear Esperanza,
a local ska band, when the helicopter
crashed through the roof.
"Highly trained firefighters from all
over Scotland are carrying out rescue
operations at the scene," House said.
"They are continuing to make the
building safe to allow full examination
of the scene to ensure that everyone is
There were no ambulances visible on
the scene by late morning Saturday,
but groups of people huddled around a
police cordon, some visibly upset and
crying. A blue tarpaulin had been
spread on the roof of the Clutha bar in
Glasgow, but the shapes of the blades
and mangled fuselage were clearly
visible from the street.
The crash Friday at around 10:30 p.m.
sent dozens of patrons fleeing through
a cloud of dust. Witnesses spoke of
people streaming out of the building
covered in blood, with gashes and other
Local resident Paul Dundas, 26, told
how he heard a loud bang and looked
out of his window to see a plume of
dust rising above the pub.
"At first I thought it was a firework ,"
he said, describing the "horrible scene"
he discovered upon going down to the
street level.
"People were covered in blood and
dust. Other people were dragging them
away from the bar and trying to get
them out," he said. "Everyone was in
shock, but people were helping and
asking strangers if they were O.K. I
saw a couple help each other clean up
their faces.
Grace MacLean, who was inside the pub
at the time, said she heard a "whoosh"
noise and then saw smoke.
"The band were laughing, and we were
all joking that the band had made the
roof come down," she told the BBC.
"They carried on playing, and then it
started to come down more, and
someone started screaming, and then
the whole pub just filled with dust. You
couldn't see anything, you couldn't
People formed a human chain to help
pass unconscious people out of the pub
so that "inch by inch, we could get the
people out," said Labour Party
spokesman Jim Murphy, who was in the
area when the helicopter came down.
"The helicopter was inside the pub. It's
a mess. I could only get a yard or two
inside. I helped carry people out,"
Murphy told Sky News. "I saw a pile of
people clambering out of the pub in the
dust. No smoke, no fire, just a huge
amount of dust."
Police and air-safety investigators have
begun inquiries, but say it is too early
to say why the Eurocopter EC135 T2
helicopter — carrying two police
officers and a civilian pilot — came
down on the pub's roof, close to a
helipad on the banks of the River
The twin-engined Eurocopter is widely
used by police and ambulance services.
In 2007, a Eurocopter EC135 T2
crashed in southern England. The pilot
and his wife were unhurt, but the
aircraft was badly damaged. Britain's
Air Accidents Investigation Branch said
there had been a failure of the
autotrim system which maintains the
aircraft's position. The agency
recommended changes to correct the
Esperanza, the band which was playing
in The Clutha when the crash occurred,
joined in the heaps of praise showered
on rescue officials.
"Waking up and realizing that it is all
definitely horribly real," the band
wrote on its official Facebook page.
"Despite the situation everyone was so
helpful and caring of each other. The
police, ambulances, firefighters all did
a stellar job and continue to do so
today in extremely difficult
Glasgow, a city of about 600,000
people, has transformed its traditional
image of being a rough and tumble city
to one with a vibrant music and arts
scene. It was also among the cities that
hosted Olympic soccer matches in 2012
and will hold the Commonwealth
Games in 2014.


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MIDDLEBURY — For Middlebury resident Stephanie Smith's mother, Marthena Smith, slow medicine seemed to be the right fit.
Marthena Smith, who died in June at age 89, enrolled herself in Porter Hospital's Partners in Palliative and Home Care program the previous December. She had a stomach problem, and it seemed as though she was sick all the time.
"She just made the decision to go to them herself," Stephanie Smith said. "They empowered both me and my mother to make decisions that were best for her."


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I mean, holy shit. There are not words to express the equal mix of shame and excitement I felt, and continue to feel, upon learning that these pictures exist. Zack Greinke saw a camera in front of him and then kissed his cat on the head. He and his wife and family and friends had a goddamned cat party. They celebrated the birthday of their beloved cat friend and dressed up in cat themed clothing. This happened. I don't even know what to do with myself.
Photos courtesy of Emily Greinke's Twitter account


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One of my favorite services here at Rackspace is Mailgun, a set of APIs that allow you to send email and manage mailing lists via a REST API. Coming back from a recent trip to San Antonio I decided that I would add an Objective-C interface to send email via Mailgun using my own iOS interface instead of using Apple's `MFMailComposeViewController.` This library is now open sourced on Github and available via Cocoapods.
Check out my post on the Rackspace DevOps blog to find out how to install and use the Mailgun SDK, along with details on sending a message, subscribing and unsubscribing to mailing lists via the Mailgun SDK.
For more on mobile development, check out http://www.rackspace.com/mobile-cloud/.


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During the reunion show of Survivor:Nicaragua, we learned that the upcoming season of the show would be bringing us some new rules!
In a new interview, host Jeff Probst discusses the new format and rules. The most notable change on the upcoming Survivor: Redemption Island, which premieres Feb. 16 on CBS, is that when a contestant is voted off, he or she won't leave the game but instead go instead to the "Redemption Island," where he or she will face off against the next person voted off in a duel.
The loser goes home and the duel winner goes on to face the next arrival at Redemption Island until one person is left standing. That individual will then get a chance to return to the game.
"We did a haphazard version of Redemption Island a few years ago called the Outcasts," Jeff explains. "It didn't work and it didn't please the audience and there was one fundamental flaw – we didn't tell people up front it was going to happen … So I have no problem with people coming back into the game because everybody knows up front [now]. A rule can't be unfair if you know going in. It's an equal opportunity."
And thanks to the two infamous quitters, NaOnka Mixon and Kelly Shinn, being allowed to quit the game and remain on the jury, much to the fury of fans, the show has now implemented new rules regarding quitters. From the new season on, producers will have total discretion on whether to keep quitters on the show or leave them off the jury. "The most frustrating part for me was that both of them, due to a precedent we already set on the show, were allowed to stay on the jury and have an influence at the end of the game," Jeff tells PEOPLE.
In other Survivor news, Matthew "Sash" Lenahan found himself in the same position as popular villain Russell Hantz during the finale show. Despite playing a pretty good game, Sash ended up not only losing the game, but receiving zero votes from his jury peers as he simply ruffled too many feathers. In an interview with TV Guide, Sash discusses not receiving any votes and who surprised him the most on the jury. Excerpts below –
TVGuide.com: Why do you think you didn't receive a single vote from the jury?
Matthew "Sash" Lenahan: It's rough. I think I played a great game on the show. I don't regret anything. I think I made the best move every step of the way, and I did the best that I could. I can't control how the jury is going to vote. I did think that I had a shot tonight, but I think the jury voted a lot based on emotion and previous relationships, and not necessarily based on the way I played, which is how I would have based my vote. I just thought some of the members of the jury would have respected the game more.
But saying that, Fabio is a great winner. I am a super fan of the show, I've watched all 10 years and 20 seasons, and no one has ever played like Fabio has. I thought I knew all the twists and all the turns and all the angles, but he played a way I've never seen, so he's very deserving.
TVGuide.com: Was there anyone on the jury whose comments surprised you the most?
Sash: It really surprises me because this is a game. There are some people, Jane in particular, who tried to hit below the belt. You saw with me, the comments she made about my mother, the comments she made about Marty and his kids. It's a game. I had my game face on, but I love everyone. I don't hold any grudges. I know that they are all amazing people, but it's a shame when you see people take it to a level that's unnecessary.


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Spencer "Roonie" Barnes
Spencer "Roonie" Jordan Barnes, 19, died Saturday, March 10, 2012 in Billings, Montana. The cause of death is under investigation by the Yellowstone County Coroner.
Spencer was born on May 17, 1992 in Polson, Montana to Shawn Barnes and Stephanie Markuson. Spencer traveled a lot while growing up and even though he had a quiet demeanor, he made friends wherever he went.
He lived in Ronan, Montana; Valdez and Anchorage; Dodson, Polson, and Billings, all in Montana; and Mililani, Hawaii. Spencer attended schools in Malta, Dodson, Anchorage, Aiea, Mililani and Valdez, where he initiated and obtained his GED from Prince William Sound Community College.
Spencer enjoyed an active life indoors and out. As a young boy he played t-ball, basketball and learned to snowboard and surf. He loved playing basketball any chance he had. He worked in a variety of areas including a lumberyard, labor positions - having attended the Alaska Laborers Training School - a fast food restaurant, general construction working with family as well as on his grandfathers farm and most recently laying fiber optics and as a temp for a janitorial company.
Spencer will be dearly missed by his great grandmother Phyllis Lester of Ronan; grandparents Cinda Barnes of Ronan; Rose (Gary) Hawkins of Dodson; step-grandparents Benna (Charlie) Hughey of Valdez and Ron (Alice) Anderson of Malta; parents Shawn (Jenette) Barnes, of Valdez, Stephanie (Dan) Anderson of Malta; siblings Kristoffer (Stephanie) Barnes, Stephanie Vlasoff, Vance Anderson, Justin Barnes and Jada Barnes. He will also be missed by numerous aunts and uncles and cousins throughout Alaska, Hawaii, and Montana.
Spencer is preceded in death by great grandparents Loyal Lester, Kay Hawkins, Daniel and Betty Thomas; grandparent Patrick Barnes, Sr. and George Markuson, uncle Douglas Hawkins; cousins Heidi Martinez, James Angaiak, David Komakhuk and Nadia Komakhuk.
Condolences for the family may be left at http://www.kirkwoodfuneralhome.com. Kirkwood Funeral Home of Malta was in charge of arrangements.
The family received friends on March 15 at the Kirkwood Memorial Chapel in Malta. Funeral services were held Friday, March 16. Interment was at the Hillside Cemetery in Dodson.
Memorials may be made in his name at; Wells Fargo Bank, P.O. 67, Valdez, AK, 99686 or First Security Bank, P.O. Box 732, Malta, MT, 59538.


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NVIDIA SHIELD: Hands on
NVIDIA has been showing off the SHEILD in select places, and I got to play with one. I drove an hour to go play with it… and arrived three hours early. I thought to myself, "Was it worth waiting three hours and driving two to play with the SHIELD?" Sure, it is a cool concept, but the portable clamshell console has been done before. Why is the SHIELD so special?
I came in with an attitude I couldn't describe as fully positive, but left incredibly impressed. I was shown the NVIDIA SHIELD, told about its design and the small details that make it amazing. And I got to finally use the controller I've been wondering about for so long. Could a portable controller meet my high expectations? No; it blew them away.
Let's start with the design. It's a simple clamshell design with a 5-inch 720p display and a controller beneath it. It has the D-pad and the ABXY buttons you're accustomed to, but it adds dual thumb sticks, dual triggers and two bumper buttons above the triggers. Throw in the five center buttons, and you've got yourself a fully featured controller a home console would be envious of. Above that are two speakers. On the back, you have a microUSB charging port, a mini HDMI port, a microSD slot, a 3.5mm port and a big vent. Beneath the NVIDIA logo in the front is another vent.
The build quality of the SHIELD is fantastic. It may be mostly plastic, but it has a great feel to it. Plus, there are no creaks. This is no Samsung plastic; it feels really high end. It also doesn't feel like it'd break within a year, which is great for something portable. And at under 600 grams, it's lighter than many tablets.
The controller is probably the most important part of any gaming device, and I was amazed by the way it was designed. At first, I doubted the integrity of the thumbsticks. No controller I've never used aside from the Microsoft Xbox 360 controller has ever really done thumbsticks "right." That's an opinion, but it's a strong one. I fell in love with the sticks on the SHIELD. They fit my thumbs perfectly and had just the right resistance. They were a pleasure to use. I'm not sure about the longevity of the little dots on them (they wear off within a few years on a 360 controller), but that shouldn't matter much. The rest of the buttons felt nice and were responsive.
The buttons around the large NVIDIA button are back, home, volume (which pops up on screen volume controls) and a multifunction button that pauses games. And the speakers flanking the buttons are very loud and clear, to say the least. Very impressive for the size.
The software is stock Android 4.2.1. Of course, it has a few modifications here and there, but it's pretty much stock. This paired with a Tegra 4, creates a lightning fast experience. There is also the Tegra app, which looks somewhat like a console interface (think Steam Big Picture). This is accessed by hitting the big center NVIDIA button.
I only played two games on the device, but they were very enjoyable. Riptide GP 2 looked great and performed wonderfully. I opted to keep the accelerometer off and use the thumbstick for a more console-like experience, and it was awesome. I also had the pleasure of playing an emulator loaded with The Legend of Zelda for the SNES. Emulators have full controller support, so this is the perfect emu machine. Gaming was wonderful.
The reps were very nice and told me a bunch of cool info. First of all, the device doesn't overheat from prolonged gaming. They say the device plays games for 12 hours straight while charging and never have they even gotten overly warm. I can believe it, because even on an 82 degree day, they stayed very cool. Also, the device is wonderfully balanced. It is not top heavy, and it rests in your hands perfectly. Plus with WiFi MIMO, Bluetooth, GPS and many other features, it serves as a fully functional Android device; it only lacks a data connection.
These are just my first thoughts on the device after playing with it for a mere thirty minutes. But in that half hour, NVIDIA managed to sell me on the SHIELD. I will be waiting for the release date at the end of the month to pick one up, because it's simply that awesome. If you have a chance, head over to one of the locations and try it out. Maybe you'll fall in love, too. Stay tuned for more content on the NVIDIA SHIELD, and let us know in the comments what you want to see about it!