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Thread: So I played Dear Esther...
So I played Dear Esther...
... and I'm aware there's a thread about it already, but my focus is on the "should it be a game" subject and not about "what the hell is it about, I didn't get it" like that thread. For this reason, I decided to open another one instead (besides I'm too lazy to look for the other one, and have no time to do it right now since this is a rushed post).
I wrote a "review" about it a couple of weeks ago on my blog. You can go read the post here: http://nemirc.wordpress.com/2012/03/...wot-me-thinkz/
And you can share your thoughts about that. Just remember that just because you don't agree with what I say doesn't mean I'm wrong, and just because you agree with what I say doesn't mean I'm right. That's just my point of view on the game."So dark le con of man"
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Alternatively you could post your opinion here... and then we might discuss it?
"For a game, the level of interaction is almost zero. Gameplaywise, the game doesn't require more from you than pressing the W key while moving the mouse around."
So walking around and taking in the visual and aural stimulus (stimuli?) doesn't count as interaction? Games like Stalker are praised for the exploration element. Here you have a 60 minutes game that features only that.
I honestly don't care about this "what is a game?" argument. I think it's restricted by vocabulary anyway. The overall experience is what matters to me, not how much I click or whatever. I'm open to everything. If I like the experience - good. If I am annoyed by, say, the game constantly taking away control I won't declare it an "un-game" or demand games to stop doing this. Later I might enjoy one that does the same thing. For example, I hated Dead Space 2's constantly interrupting cutscenes but loved MW3.
Mediocre analogy time. What is a movie? A vessel for a story? Or is it all about the image and sound and the emotional impact they have? Yesterday my mind was blown by Enter The Void, which can't be discussed on an intelectual level. It's a pure visceral experience. Other films have shit visuals and audio but great stories. That doesn't mean they're not films. They are just two facets of a very broad art form. Same goes for games. There's a place for everything and arguing if X game really is a game is futile.
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There wasn't much reason for Dear Esther being a "game" when it could've been wrapped up as a 20 minute short film with the SAME setting and the SAME story, whilst still championing atmosphere without it becoming boring.
What do films have to fall back on when their stories are awful? The visuals, the direction. Films are a visual medium.
What do games have to fall back on when their stories are awful? Hmmm, surely it's the interactivity people keep banging on about, that 'all important' feature that makes games 'different' from other mediums. A tacked on story doesn't hold much sway for a medium, because there are films, and poems, and paintings, and music, that don't even touch narrative. By and large, people only acknowledge games with stories as art, and are unable to acknowledge games without stories as art, or when they do fail to explain why.
I'm not even sure where I'm going with this because I don't see games as art. But if you're going to use interactivity as the crux of the argument for artsy games, then surely using a game that is basically barren of interactivity would prove counter to it. A little consistency, please.
For all the talk people give about the arty side of things, they don't really do a good job of explaining how actual GAMEPLAY contributes to it.
Last edited by Abacus Finch; 18-03-2012 at 03:22 AM.
Games generally imply that there's interactivity, a goal, a challenge, and rules. The majority of things we'd consider "games" do fall into that category, even something open-ended like Minecraft. The player directs the goals, but there is a challenge (the hostile environment) and rules (player health, death, crafting, etc).
My problem with things like this and Tale of Tales is that they're not games just because there's an interactive aspect. I can interact with a PowerPoint display but it's not a game. I can click through a piece of hypertext fiction but it's not a game. These kinds of things are a sequence of events which really does not require player interaction at all. As Abacus Finch says, most of them would do the exact same job as a short film. The player interaction is largely irrelevant, there is no real challenge, and there is no real goal ("Experience my work" is not a player goal).
In my opinion I think that most of these kinds of "games" are only ever being conceived as games because their creators are interested in more attention, and they know that they wouldn't get the same attention as they would in other mediums. Tale of Tales are especially guilty of this: there's no way their art would generate any attention if it was a short film, but they know they can put it into a "game", sell it, and have a bunch of blogs rave about how it's "intelligent, artistic gaming". It's purely a marketing strategy.
Some of them are entertaining (though in general I think some of them get way too much praise for what they are), and as examples of "interactive art" they're fine. But they're not games. The simple fact that a person interacts with the display does not make it a game. For it to be a game, there has to be a ruleset and a challenge, and the player's interaction has to be more meaningful than "Move to next scene".
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People babbling about the definition of "game" is even worse than people babbling about what is "art". If you just focus on the word then you're missing the entire point.
I feel like people have a far too constricted view of "game". The medium which is labelled as such can and should be far more expansive than the silly Law of Interaction-Goal-Rules-Challenge. Obviously things like Dear Esther don't fulfill the mold, because they're not meant to. Dear Esther is trying to do something entirely different. We should be looking at what it actually does, not merely how well it fits into our preconceived mindset.
It's like dismissing Tarkovsky's The Mirror as an un-movie because it doesn't feature a specific plot with specific characters and nicely drawn story arc. Not comparing it Dear Esther in this sense, but I think The Mirror is far more true to the essence of the medium than movies that feature the common theatre-styled storytelling. Point being that I think we need things like Dear Esther to really challenge our notions of the medium of "game".
So I guess Dear Esther may not be what people call a "game", but I couldn't care less. I care about the experience, and the experience of watching it as a short film would be completely different and have far less impact.
Last edited by Pants; 18-03-2012 at 04:55 AM.
To a simple mind as mine, Dear Esther can be defined as a video game for the reasons expressed on my post, which should be familiar to those who took the time to read it and not posting weird messages about "pimp my blog."
The interaction is basically pressing the W key (or if you're me, pressing the RMB). In Cannabalt the interaction is about pressing the jump key. They both use only one key, the difference is the "needed skill."
I don't really care about the argument of "games being art" because this whole thing began when Roger Ebert said games could not be considered art (and I don't know if he just decided to say that out of the blue, or as a response to someone, and I really don't care). All I know is that Kellee Santiago (and others) came forth stating that games are art, and makes me wonder if the kind of games they (and others, like Tale of Tales) make are more about "proving Roger Ebert wrong" than anything else.
Having said this, to me Dear Esther is the kind of game that suffers from identity crisis because, "it wants to be considered an art-game," and wanting to start this senseless argument about "what else games can be." Even the developers pitched it as an exploration game, but considering there's this invisible hand guiding you everywhere really kills the "exploration" aspect. You're constantly reminded you can't visit 90% of the environment because the system doesn't want you to go to those places by using big holes, oceans, steep slopes or rock walls.
To me, Dear Esther is not a bad game. I liked the (rather simple) story, although some things about the presentation (of the story itself, something completely unrelated to "it being a game") are very poor IMO, but games are not the right medium to tell it. You don't need 10 minutes of silent walking to "interpret the story." This is the equivalent to watching a DVD with your thumb ready to press the pause button every few seconds so you "interpret" what you just saw. Movies/books with good stories make you spend hours, days, weeks and months thinking about it. A movie doesn't pause itself after a dialogue or scene so that the audience gets to "interpret" the story, and a book doesn't leave blank pages between chapters so readers "interpret" what they read."So dark le con of man"
If you don't know what Dear Esther is, then you're not into gaming, into non-gaming, or maybe you are one of the readers who's more interested about 3D and CG than gaming. Either way, it's ok
Dear Esther is a game about a dude walking to a mountain, and if you're like me, you just remembered this:
Now, on to a more serious tone for my post…
There was a lot of discussion related to whether Dear Esther is a game, an interactive movie, an interactive novel, interactive audio book, or (people seem to love this word), interactive "experience." I'll take the simplistic approach and say Dear Esther is a video game, based on what the almighty Wikipedia has to say about it simply because the game requires human interaction to function:
A video game is an electronic game that involves human interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. The word video in video game traditionally referred to a raster display device, but following popularization of the term "video game", it now implies any type of display device.
The thing is people wonder if it's a game because all you do is walk. So maybe you can't simply think of it as a game, and you have to think of it as an "interactive novel" like some say. However, if you do this, you also have to consider how it is an interactive novel if the sole interaction is hitting the W key whenever you want to read the next page. As a storyteller, to me this is about using a medium to tell a story, and I'll simply look at it using different perspectives and try to figure out what works and what doesn't.
Just a note to Dear Esther die-hard fans out there: if you don't agree with whatever I say, that doesn't mean I'm wrong; if, on the other hand, I say something that fits the way you see this game, doesn't mean I'm right. Like it or not, I'm entitled to opinion and just because it bears a 78 on Metacritic will not change it in any way.
As a game.
I'd have to say the most compelling parts of the game are the environments and sound. A combination of the two make you feel like you're in that island, and it's so alive it makes you want to explore the whole place, which is extremely cool, but it's also one of the biggest flaws I find.
The story, while interesting, is very straightforward, and is presented via vague voiceovers to make players draw their own conclusions based on what they hear, and see. Depending on the kind of player you are, this will be a good or bad thing for you. If you're the kind of player who cares about your character, want to connect with it and what happens to it, then this is not a game for you because you don't even know who you are.
For a game, the level of interaction is almost zero. Gameplaywise, the game doesn't require more from you than pressing the W key while moving the mouse around. It didn't take me long to realize having to use both hands for this game was just overkill, and I found myself remapping the controls to fit a realMyst style control scheme (RMB to walk forward, MMB to swim up). You can't even know more about the story by interacting with objects, and the story is simply presented to you by touching triggers found on the levels. This lack of interaction also relates to the biggest flaw I mentioned earlier.
As I said, Dear Esther is considered an exploration game, and the beautiful island would make this work perfectly… if you were actually able to explore the place. The game is full of places you can't reach, and the levels themselves end up being completely linear. On the other hand, while there are places where you can stray a little and explore, there is not a sense of reward since the level of interaction is so low. I am not talking about getting an achievement for exploring certain cave, or something like that. Other games about exploration yield a better sense of understanding what's going on just by visiting places and interacting with things you find. For example, in Fatal Frame, half of the time you're reading books and diaries to help you understand what's going on. If Fatal Frame were Dear Esther, you'd get the full story just by walking around and hitting the next invisible trigger.
This is what was the point of making Dear Esther a game, if the entire story will be presented to you by just holding the W key (or in my case, by holding the RMB). You reach a point where the system is this big invisible hand, telling you where to go and automatically feeding all the needed information into your brain with no effort. Some can even argue this works because "then you control the pace of the story" but that's only true if you decide to stop for a while and look around, and then continue walking.
Dear Esther is an experiment, and you have to keep that in mind when playing it. I have to say the game got me thinking about many things even after I finished the first play-through. However, the magic was gone from me by the time I played the second time, because, while I wanted to know more, I knew I'd end up visiting the same places again, waiting for the next trigger to activate so the dude delivered the next part of the dialogue. The game would have been a lot better if you'd had the chance to interact more with things, so you can find more of the story 'by yourself' and not by just walking. If the chinese room decided to make this a game, they could have totally profited from the levels of interactivity the medium offers, and not making a game that feels completely constrained by some poor choices in design.
After all, there are more ways of interactivity in games besides killing monsters, jumping platforms or solving puzzles. For a game like Dear Esther, a simple "I'll let you swim to that wrecked ship over there so you explore it and press E to read the logs in that ship" would've been welcome.
But Dear Esther made me drown half way to the ship because the system knows I'm not supposed to go there.
As a cinematic story.
The story, while interesting is pretty straightforward. You're an unnamed character in an island, thinking about his past and "recent events" (I'll try not to post any spoilers. While you don't know the exact goal, right off the bat you know there's a very important radio tower with a red glowing light, simply because that's the first thing you see, and certain framings throughout the game only reinforce this (the one I liked the most is where you walk in a path between two cliffs that frame the tower perfectly).
There are many interesting details in Dear Esther, such as paintings on walls, sunken ships, and, on the last chapter, lit candles, some of them with pictures near them. Most of the time, these little details provide a richer experience because they relate, in one way or another, with what the protagonist is talking about. However, there's the unfortunate small detail that, since you don't know who the protagonist is, you don't know how many of these details may relate to you.
The thing that mostly drew my attention was the paintings on the walls. There are different symbols on the walls that make reference to parts of the protagonist's lines. Some of them are diagrams that describe the chemical compound of alcohol (according to what some say, since I don't know anything about that subject), others are supposedly brain cells, and others are (incomplete?) electric circuits. Since the story is very open to interpretation (even if it doesn't take you much to know there's a car crash involved), you can try to figure out what those diagrams mean.
I do think authors could have used a stronger symbol, since there's a part where you're, literally, surrounded by these symbols and writings. For example, maybe the protagonist is an electrician, but maybe he's dealing with the guilt of causing a car crash, so in that scenario having countless electric circuits is not exactly the strongest symbol to have at that very moment.
Taking an example from games. If you've played Fatal Frame II, then you know Chitose Tachibana. She was young, easily scared, and had poor vision. In the game, died trapped in a room. When you go into that room and look at the walls through the Camera Obscura, you see japanese writings that (according to what I've found), mean "help me," which is very suitable for that specific moment. If it was Dear Esther maybe they would've placed a bunch of glasses and eye-diagrams instead…
I can't help to notice how much Dear Esther reminded me of the movie Stay. Henry is a car crash survivor, and later in the film you know he's dealing with guilt. There's a scene where Ewan McGregor's character gets really close to a wall that seems to have a bunch of lines. When you get the extreme close up, you realize those are actually tiny words saying "Forgive me" over and over. Those were written by Henry, who happened to be an artist of some sort, but his guilt has a more important role at that moment.
See what I'm getting at? In Dear Esther you may be dealing with a protagonist who's trying to deal with some sort of guilt related to that car crash, and the strongest symbol you can come up with is a bunch of electric circuits? Visually, that makes you wonder if the feelings of guilt are real at all, because visually you get the impression that he's a very rational and brain-oriented person.
The guy may be sorry for something… but what we get in the end is the diagram of a condensator…
The fourth chapter is a really welcome change, and visually the strongest chapter of them all. The story reaches its peak, and takes momentum. This is good, considering I was hoping the story to do this at some point, but I do think it was too late, since this peak would have fitted the third chapter better and use the fourth to give us the resolution (or whatever you want to call it).
The entire story seems to be more of a catharsis than anything else, which to me works pretty well. The protagonist is not dealing with any external antagonist, but rather with himself. For this reason, the ending also works pretty well, since it's about letting go, and not about overcoming an obstacle.
Final words.
I am not going to provide you with an "score" since this was not a review. This was just sharing my thoughts based on my experience with Dear Esther. For this reason, while I hope what I wrote is useful to those still not sure if they should get the game or not, I'm not going encourage anyone to get it. As a piece of cinematic history, Dear Esther, while simple, is something I recommend to those who liked the movie Stay. As a game, I can recommend it as part of "research" (and if you're a game developer, more so), although the gaming medium proves to be overkill when it comes to a project like Dear Esther."So dark le con of man"
Goal: "Interpret story" is not a goal. "Navigate to the end" is not a clear goal.
Challenge: Interpret the story is not a challenge, it does not oppose the player. Interpreting the story means nothing to the actual gameplay aspect. If you don't understand the story, the "game" still completes. "Navigate the environment" and "Find clues" is slightly more accurate but neither pose a particular "challenge" in these instances. Challenge implies opposition or resistance. Navigating the level in a platformer is a challenge. Walking until you find a trigger is not.
Rules: A control scheme is not a rule, it is an interface. Triggers are not really rules, they're a level design mechanic. A rule is "If the player loses all their health, they die and must restart the level" or to re-purpose your control-scheme thing "The player can move around on a platform and can jump x height"
If you're prepared to strip challenge, opposition, and meaningful interactivity from a game, then we might as well start deciding that PowerPoint presentations are games. A strong story that requires you to click on something or move forward without really throwing up any opposition does not suddenly make it a game. A game has to have gameplay. There isn't any gameplay in Dear Esther or the Tale of Tales games. Thus, they're not games. The distinction is fairly important if you're going to accurately assess the merits of the title. If you take it as a game it's hard to really praise it as a game because there's no real gameplay. As an interactive story though the merits are greater. Really when people talk about it they're assessing it as an interactive story, not as a game.
Some of you seem to think that I'm attacking them as being inferior or unworthy but I'm just pointing out a fair distinction. Okay, I am attacking Tale of Tales because they deserve it, but I'm not attacking Dear Esther or suggesting it's not worth anybody's time because it isn't a game. I'm just pointing out that it has nothing really in common with games, I'm not suggesting it's a bad piece of work.
On interactivity: It has bearing on how you perceive the story; there are quite a few triggers you'll only activate if you explore around rather than taking the shortest path to the end and taking different routes or paying attention to different things will affect your experience.
Goal: Of course interpreting the story can be a goal, just as finding all the hidden stuff can be a goal. That it's a goal you set for yourself doesn't change that it exists and you made that point yourself above in regards to Minecraft. "See how it ends" is quite a common goal for anything with a story and in this case, to see how it ends you have to play the game.
Challenge: The story is deliberately vague and contradictory and can be puzzled together in a multitude of ways. A puzzle to solve is a challenge to overcome. Regarding navigating the environment and finding the little clues scattered around the island.. well it's not much of a challenge, I agree, but if it needs to be hard to be a game there's quite a lot of them that don't count these days.
Rules: If something depends on something else it's governed by rules. To trigger a certain VO clip I have to find and enter the trigger volume in the cave near the start of the game - that's a rule. The limitations placed on movement and the ways and order in which I can navigate the environment are all rules which govern the experience (you said it yourself: "The player can move around on a platform and can jump x height"). If you fall off a cliff or walk off a pier into deep water you'll "die" and the game will pull you back ("A rule is "If the player loses all their health, they die and must restart the level").
I don't really agree with your criteria in the first place btw, though I do think Dear Esther lives up to them (I haven't played The Path or any other Tale of Tales games so can't say anything about those). As far as I'm concerned anything I can play with is a game, or tools to be used within a game.
Regarding goals, "interpreting the story" is not a gameplay goal. The examples I give for Minecraft exist within the confines of gameplay: survive, build a castle, make a diamond sword, etc. They don't work in Creative mode though, because Creative mode has no real gameplay. The goal "interpret the story" has no relevance to the gameplay. It's something a player might be interested in but it by no means impacts upon gameplay... namely because in Dear Esther's case, there isn't any.
Regarding challenge: As you said, navigation isn't actually a challenge, it's just there to fence you in. And no, "interpreting the story" is not a gameplay challenge. As I said, if you take the story on its own, it doesn't change anything. The story is completely divorced from meaningful interactivity. That goes for pretty much every game; the story itself is NOT a gameplay device, it gives context to the game. Otherwise all stories are games, and they quite clearly aren't. A story that requires interpretation is just that, it has no gameplay aspect. A game can be story-driven in that the story is a compelling part of the game... but this isn't the case here, because there's no gameplay.
Regarding rules: If you want to make the more strict expression of a rule then a trigger can be a rule, I'll concede that, but something like triggering a voiceover clip is more of a level-design issue, not a gameplay rule. I will agree that the game does have rules governing movement and "death" but these alone do not actually create gameplay, because all the other elements are missing. They exist only to keep you on the path. They have no meaning for "gameplay".
As for disagreeing with the criteria: You can, but I'd like to see your suggestion, because most people would agree that a game has to actually have gameplay, and the vast majority of "games" you can name will fit a similar sort of criteria (although another one would be that it's usually something done as a recreational activity which may also be educational). One of the key things is challenge or opposition (i.e. something to overcome) along with rules about how to play. If you ignore some of these aspects then anything is a game.
For me, forming an interpretation of the story is a goal (though my interpretation is by no means definite or conclusive). It exists within the confines of gameplay: navigate the environment to unlock voice-overs which form pieces of that puzzle, find the little vignettes scattered around the island, gain access to the rest of the story.
I don't see how navigating the environment in Dear Esther to progress to the next area and the next bit of story is (conceptually) any different from navigating through a dungeon in Dragon Age to reach the next part of a quest, for example. Or is an RPG only a game when you're engaged in combat or conversation? Does a shooter stop being a game when I let go of the trigger?
Challenge: I didn't say it wasn't a challenge, I said it wasn't much of a challenge. There are failure conditions: you can fall off a cliff, drown in the water or just get lost. If you just run through and don't poke around you'll miss a lot of the story and a lot of the sights along the way. Again, if something needs to be difficult to be a game there sure are a lot of games that don't meet that criteria these days (not to mention all the games that rely on chance). I never failed anything while playing Mass Effect 2 for example (no deaths, no lost squad members), nor did I ever die during the HL2 episodes, so would those meet your criteria for providing a challenge?
You say the story has no gameplay aspect, but when it's up to the player to unlock and explore the story (through exploring the environment) I would argue very much the opposite.
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Why are some people so desperate for Dear Esther to be considered a game? I mean, it obviously isn't a game according to common usage. The first line in the "About" section of the product's website says "Dear Esther is a ghost story, told using first-person gaming technologies." This seems to be a very accurate description of what the product is. So why do people want to call it a video game? What is the benefit of extending the term to cover such very different things, that will cause confusions and mistakes?Irrelevant on further examination of the rest of the thread.
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It is my opinion that this runs deeper than a difference of opinion.Irrelevant on further examination of the rest of the thread.


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For the fourth straight year, I drove down Interstate 77 to Cambridge on an unseasonably warm mid-December weekend to see the "Extravaganza of Light and Sounds" at the Guernsey County Courthouse.
Simply known as the Guernsey County Courthouse light show, I've written about it before. The spectacular show is synchronized to holiday music, and it's a trip I'd recommend for all area residents.
In fact, Aurora Parks Coordinator Bill Fellenstein and his family went down to see it this winter.
It is associated with Dickens' Victorian Village, which runs from the first weekend in November through the first week in January. Life-sized figures set up along Wheeling Avenue downtown depict many scenes from the Dickensian era in Great Britain.
After viewing the light show and walking around downtown Friday night, my Saturday was devoted to checking out some railroad-related attractions around Cambridge.
I've been wanting to visit the Cambridge Wooden Toy Co. ever since I heard several months ago that it features a handful of wooden carvings of some famous steam locomotives. That Saturday, I got the chance.
Brian Gray has a wood carving shop in a small building beside his home, which he has operated for 37 years. He is a retired manufacturing engineer who developed a passion for wood carving decades ago.
He grew up in Seattle, and his father worked for a railroad; thus he developed a fondness for trains as a youth in the 1950s. He eventually found his way to Guernsey County.
Gray hand-carves more than 45 types of wooden toys, and in recent years he carved four large locomotives using walnut. He was inspired by the famous train carvings of the world's master carver, Ernest "Mooney" Warther of Dover.
He has received the Senator and Mrs. John Glenn Americana Award and the Salt Fork Arts and Crafts Festival's People's Choice and Lenheart Woodworking awards.
He started carving steam locos more than four years ago, and has completed four, the largest of which is a Union Pacific Big Boy. Weighing in at 360 tons, the real iron horse was one of the largest steam engines ever made.
The American Locomotive Co. of New York made 25 Big Boys from 1941 to 1945 for the Union Pacific, which used them to pull trains up difficult grades in the western United States. They had a 4-8-8-4 wheel configuration.
Gray's Big Boy model -- engine 4002 -- is about eight feet long, including the coal and water tender. He said it took him nearly a year to finish. A half-dozen real Big Boys still exist, including one at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich.
However, all are on static display, and none operate anymore.
Gray's other wooden models are a New York Central J3A steam locomotive, which stands 10 inches high and took 700 hours to make; the Northern Pacific's Four Aces made originally for Canton's Timken Co. which took 900 hours to make; and a Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul's (Milwaukee Road) bipolar electric locomotive.
Gray showed me a photo of his next project -- Pennsylvania Railroad Engine No. 7002 -- which in 1905 set a speed record for steam-driven trains at 127.2 miles an hour.
Also in the museum section of his shop is an operating N-scale model train layout. One passenger train and one freight train are pulled by two mini-light Mountain 4-8-2 engines. There are many photos of steam engines on the walls.
For the wooden toys that he sells, he uses hard woods and all edges are rounded and smoothed for the safety of children. Stains used on the toys also are safe.
Some of the wooden toys Gray hand-crafts are trains, rocking horses, buildings, forts, guns and scooters. However, he won't sell his large locomotives. He occasionally takes them to festivals in southeast Ohio.
Gray is more than willing to talk about trains and wooden toys with anyone who stops in. He doesn't seem to mind taking a break from his carving to tell visitors about his locomotives. And there is no charge to see them.
The Byesville Scenic Railroad has operated for the last few years in Byesville, a small town just south of Cambridge.
However, it didn't operate this summer because of a dispute with the owner of the track.
However, in September the volunteer railroad group dedicated a bronze statue of a coal miner at its depot after a five-year fundraising drive to secure the $40,000 needed to cast it.
In the early 1900s, Guernsey County was one of Ohio's biggest coal producing regions. The scenic railroad's route runs past several long-abandoned underground mines.
The focus of the railroad's 1 1/2-hour, 9-mile roundtrip excursions between Byesville and Pleasant City always has been "the route of the black diamond." The crew dresses up in miners' garb, wears carbide lamps on their helmets and talks about the region's mining days.
The organization wanted to memorialize the miners with the statue. It already operates a small mining industry museum in a maintenance building near the depot and track area where the rolling stock is parked.
The purpose of the statue is to illustrate the tough lifestyle of miners, and commemorate the 382 people who lost their lives in Guernsey County's mines prior to 1940.
Zanesville sculptor Alan Cottrill of CooperMill BronzeWorks Ltd. was commissioned to design and cast the bronze statue. The money came from excursion proceeds, bake sales, barbecues and donations from the public.
The statue features a carbide lamp on the miner's helmet, an oil wick lamp at the base, an Edison light, a lunch pail, a powder box from the Austin Powder Co. in Cleveland and a pick and shovel.
The miner is missing his right index figure in honor of the men injured in the mines, and his check tag bears the number 382 in recognition of the 382 miners who died in Guernsey County over a 60-year period.
The nearby small museum was completed in 2011 and is open sparingly. The curator is Dave Adair, a huge rail fan who has collected much memorabilia over the years. He is an electrician who helped dissemble many of the signals along southeast Ohio's abandoned rail lines.
In fact, he's the guy I wrote about a couple of years ago who has four full-sized old cabooses on his property east of Cambridge, plus a replica depot housing many railroad artifacts.
The museum contains several photos of old mines, maps showing where they were located, old mining tools and other related artifacts.
When I rode the Byesville Scenic Railroad in 2008, I met Steve Stolarik, who is retired from the Ohio Highway Patrol and had some relatives who were coal miners. He's one of the guys who dress up on the excursions. He even sings some railroad-themed songs.
When operating, the BSRR usually consists of three passenger cars, a caboose and a General Electric 80-ton center cab diesel locomotive.
From what I am told, the dispute with the owner of the track may sideline the rolling stock for good. That's a shame because BSRR members spent many hours upgrading the old freight line and had planned to eventually extend excursions to Cumberland, making the roundtrip about 22 miles.
If the railroad excursions have seen their last days, it would be a major blow to Guernsey County's tourism industry since the train brought in hundreds of visitors each year.
During the afternoon, I also explored a couple of old railroad tunnels, one which still sees a couple of trains a week run through it and one which has long been closed and the tracks passing though it removed.
The active tunnel runs under Route 40 (the old National Road) at the western edge of Cambridge. It once was a Baltimore & Ohio route, which intersected with the now abandoned Pennsylvania line less than a mile away.
The old Cambridge depot still stands at the junction of the two lines. The Genessee & Wyoming Railroad now runs west to Zanesville on the former B&O line.
The abandoned tunnel I checked out is parallel to Route 821 just north of Ava in Noble County, a small town famous for being the site of the USS Shenandoah airship crash in 1925.
The steep inclines on both sides of the former rail bed have eroded, partially covering up the north portal of the tunnel. I could see the opening after parking along Route 821, but it was too steep to descend to peek into the tunnel.
I've been told that the south portal can be found in the dense brush on the south side of Tunnel Hill Road, just north of an abandoned and collapsing old brick plant, but I decided not to venture back there.
That rail line was once the Cleveland & Marietta and later the Pennsylvania. It ran from Marietta up through Dover and Minerva, and connected to the now Norfolk Southern line which runs through Twin Lakes, Hudson and Macedonia.
The portion of the line between Marietta and Pleasant City was last used in the late 1960s or early 1970s.
The portion of the line between Cambridge and Dover had two other tunnels -- one at Kimbolton and one at Stone Creek. The latter is the one I walked through a couple of times with a buddy of mine when we were teenagers.
Email: email@example.com
Phone: 330-541-9400 ext. 4189

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Music Home
Dance Home
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43rd Multiband Pops
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This Week's Program
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GIVE NOW, Options
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Chair's Message
To Receive Concert Updates
(Link to Contact/Visit Us page)
Provides over 200 performance and concert opportunities, 17 instrumental ensembles, 6 vocal ensembles, and student solo and studio recital series.
Is an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Music. UMass Amherst is accredited by the New England Association of Universities and Colleges.
Includes: 275 undergraduate and 71 graduate students.
Offers the following degrees: Bachelor of Arts in Music; Bachelor of Music in Jazz, Music Education, History, Performance, or Theory/Composition; Master of Music in Jazz, Music Education, Musicology, Performance, or Accompanying; and Doctor of Philosophy in Music Education.
Is housed in the Fine Arts Center. Separate wings of the Center incorporate exhibition and performing areas, academic space for the Departments of Art, Theater and Music, including Music Department classrooms, practice rooms, studios, offices and a music library reserve center.
Presents performances in the 2,000-seat Concert Hall, the 200-seat Bezanson Recital Hall (both in the Fine Arts Center complex), and Bowker Auditorium, a 700-seat facility located in Stockbridge Hall.
Utilizes UMass Amherst's library system which includes music and dance-related books (20,000), scores (18,000), periodical subscriptions (100), recordings (21,000), and a variety of electronic resources, located in the W.E.B. Du Bois Library and a smaller Music Reserve Lab in the Music wing of the Fine Arts Center.
Participates in the Five College system; courses can be taken, at no extra cost, at Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke and Smith Colleges, which are linked by a free bus system. Music students may participate in special performances such as the Five College Choral and Jazz Festivals. Link to Five College Music website.
Is home to Jazz in July , a two-week Fine Arts Center summer program which has many of the same jazz faculty as the Department of Music & Dance. To learn more, please see the Jazz in July website.
Mission/Vision Statements
Music Department Facts
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Music Home |
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One of the best music schools/departments in Massachusetts and in New England, offering graduate and undergraduate Music Education, Jazz, Performance, Music History and Music Theory degrees and programs.
This site is maintained by the Department of Music and Dance.
© 2012 University of Massachusetts AmherstSite Policies


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A GROUP of determined residents in Moorland are refusing to leave the flooded village in an effort to protect their homes.
The residents, from 15 properties, have formed 'The Northmoor 15' action group and have been facing a daily battle to keep the flood water at bay.
But one member of the group, Carolyn Scriven, told the Mercury the villagers are racing against time to build up a barricade, as water levels are expected to rise in the next 24 hours.
She said: "It's been really bad for the past two weeks. We're holding our own at the moment but the situation is pretty dire.
"My neighbours and I live right next to the water and a large metal barricade has been built through the gardens, about 20ft from my back door. Earthworks are being built up to form a further barrier of mud and dirt - my back garden looks like a battlefield.
"Now we've been told the water could rise up to a maximum of 6.2 metres above sea level within the next 24 hours. This could back up across the moors and overtop into the Bridgwater and Taunton canal."
While many people have been evacuated from Moorland, The Northmoor 15 have refused to leave over fears their homes will be destroyed with no one on the ground to protect them.
Carolyn said: "I doubt whether the people who have been evacuated from their homes will be in them again by Christmas.
"If we had left, our homes would have been overtaken by water and it would just have been left to the insurance to sort out. People have been very scared, but we are not leaving."
At first, Carolyn said the remaining villagers felt they had been abandoned. But as word got out about the situation in Moorland, the residents have been "overwhelmed" by people lending their help.
"Our MP, Ian Liddell-Grainger has been marvellous and has raised awareness for us," she said. "He's made phone calls and got the help in and we're feeling a little bit better now we have defences built.
"FLAG has been fantastic and volunteers have helped build up sandbags. People have donated food for us. The generosity of some has been amazing."
The group is frustrated that action was not taken sooner to address the floods before they led to people being forced from their homes.
Carolyn added: "It makes me so angry that they're throwing money at this now - they should have anticipated this and not assumed anything. Now it's going to cost millions to put it right.
"Until then, we're taking every day as it comes."


text:
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text:
Good luck with that. That makes two of us!
TT Man
Well a quick look at any of my race times and you know only half of what I said is reasonably possible...and either Candice hasn't read this or she's just being nice.
Your marathon is coming up soon isn't it?
Thunder smash!
50,000 Miles Later
and either Candice hasn't read this or she's just being nice.
Something just drifted through the room. There was just a hint of irony in it.
I just switched to the half at the marathon Thunder may or may not be doing.
but my achilles will thank me later. Or not.
The Logic of Long Distance
Boo achilles.
Candice she's talking about on the greenway, not Louisville.
Candice is never nice. Not really.
Of course you won't beat me.
Oh. You're running that one too?
you should be VERY afraid.
12 Monkeys
I'm running somewhere tomorrow. It's going to be beautiful. I can't wait.
Poor baby


text:
Ketchup SachetScience brain teasers require understanding of the physical or biological world and the laws that govern it.
A man picked up a plastic water bottle and filled it to the rim with water. He put a ketchup sachet in it and closed it up.
The man approached a woman and said, "If you can solve how this works, I'll give you a dollar."
The man said "down" and the sachet of ketchup suddenly went down. Then he said "up" and it went up. Then he said "down", and when it was halfway down, he said "stay" and it stayed.
How did he do this?
HintThink pressure.
AnswerHe did it by adding pressure to the bottom. When there is less pressure, it rises. When there is more pressure, it lowers. If you add just the right pressure, it will stay.
You can perform this with lots of practice in front of a mirror. It will shock your friends, most likely.
You can find a ketchup sachet at your local fast food restaurant (ex: Burger King, McDonald's, etc.)
What Next?
See another brain teaser just like this one...
Or, just get a random brain teaser
If you become a registered user you can vote on this brain teaser, keep track of
which ones you have seen, and even make your own.
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text:
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Lawmakers haven't even approved the final ban on internet cafes, but owners say the fear factor among their customers has already started to take hold.
"They are scared, they are worried about us not being here tomorrow. Especially if they win their money. But we tell them there's nothing to worry about, we have bonds with the state, we are protected for this sort of thing" said Elia Hawara who is the owner of Royal Times Sweepstakes.
Hawara says his customers payouts are secure but he is concerned that both of his businesses will have to abruptly cease and desist.
"This thing isn't even a week old, and they've already decided to close. All I hear is close, close, close and a lot of people are going to be affected. These lawmakers need to take it easy calm down, and think about it. This will hurt Florida families" said Hawara.
The Florida house approved a measure today to outlaw electronic gaming across the state. Some lawmakers say the cafe's are predatory, and capitalizes on gambling addiction.
Long time player Kathy Harrison says that is definitely not the case.
"Right at the moment, I'm two hundred dollars ahead, and whats fun is watching the wheels spin and match up. But I think the whole thing is ridiculous, I come here to have fun with my friends."
Harrison who's retired says the cafes provides her with a social outlet. Harrison says many players are in a wait and see mode to see if they'll remain in business over the next few weeks.
"I have a couple of friends who wont go to the places right now, until they find out what's happening" said Harrison.
Owners say they feel they're being punished, even though they've done nothing wrong.
"Whoever is doing illegal stuff, let them go, but don't punish us" said Elia Hawara.
Copyright 2013 by News4Jax.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


text:
The Oracle Exastack Program helps enable Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and other members of Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) to rapidly build and deliver faster, more reliable applications. Leveraging the Oracle Exastack Program, qualifying OPN members have access to Oracle performance experts and dedicated labs for testing and tuning their applications on Oracle Exadata Database Machine and Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud. Customers can be confident when selecting Oracle Exastack Optimized applications that they have been tested and tuned to achieve optimal performance, scalability and reliability. Also part of the program, Oracle Exastack Ready is dedicated to helping ISVs run their solutions on the latest major release of Oracle Exadata and Oracle Exalogic component products, including Oracle Database, Oracle WebLogic Server, Oracle Solaris, Oracle Linux and Oracle VM. These products provide partners with a lower cost and high performance infrastructure for database and application workloads across on-premise and cloud-based environments. To find out more, visit http://www.oracle.com/partners/goto/exastack
Oracle OpenWorld San Francisco, the information technology event dedicated to helping businesses optimize existing systems and understand upcoming technology breakthroughs, draws more than 45,000 attendees from 117 countries. Oracle OpenWorld 2011 offers more than 2000 educational sessions, 400 product demos, exhibitions from 475 partners showcasing applications, middleware, database, server and storage systems, industries, management and infrastructure – all engineered for innovation. Oracle OpenWorld 2011 is being held October 2-6 at The Moscone Center in San Francisco. For more information please visit www.oracle.com/openworld. Watch Oracle OpenWorld live on YouTube for keynotes, sessions and more at www.youtube.com/oracle.
Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) Specialized is the latest version of Oracle's partner program that provides partners with tools to better develop, sell and implement Oracle solutions. OPN Specialized offers resources to train and support specialized knowledge of Oracle's products and solutions and has evolved to recognize Oracle's growing product portfolio, partner base and business opportunity. Key to the latest enhancements to OPN is the ability for partners to differentiate through Specializations. Specializations are achieved through competency development, business results, expertise and proven success. To find out more visit: www.oracle.com/partners.
Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) is the world's most complete, open, and integrated business software and hardware systems company. For more information about Oracle, please visit our Web site at www.oracle.com.
Jessica Moore
Kristin Reeves
Blanc and Otus for Oracle


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Results 1 to 19 of 19
Thread: Carte - an online TCG
Carte - an online TCG
If you've read these forums, you probably know that I tend to have an opinion. Especially about strategy games, Blood Bowl and strategy games. And Blood Bowl.
However, I'm also working as a Producer for GamesCampus.eu, and rarely in my job do I come across a title I genuinely like - of course I need to see at least some kind of appeal for the games we publish, but just because it's mass-marketable doesn't mean I like it. I still don't understand the following MineCraft gets. (This is going to get me into trouble, no?)
So it's a rare pleasure when we're about to launch a title that I am genuinely, really excited about. Yes, I am biased. Yes, I'm responsible for the European (German-only at the moment) version, but I'll go ahead and do private, free advertising for our American colleagues who got English covered. We're aiming to go into global Beta on February 23rd, and you can sign up >here for the German version< and >here for the English version<. There's also a Japenese version coming out a few weeks later.
Carte is a hardcore trading card game. We'll ease newbies in with a pretty decent tutorial, and the pre-designed (and free) Starterdecks remain competitive in tournament play. If it comes down to luck to decide who's winning, the game is very evenly matched - this is something that sets us apart from other trading card games.
Here's a short video of the German alpha. I've been trying to get my American colleagues to do something similar, but they've been afraid of me since I defeated them gloriously.
And here's something more international. We do have extremely pretty art.
Carte will be real Free2Play - you will be able to upgrade your decks by buying random booster cards, but good players will be able to win booster packs for free (by playing regularly), and will have access to all content.
If you are even remotely interested in anything TCG, feel free to visit us - it's free (once we launch), no strings attached, and if you don't like it we'll happily remove your data from our system on request.
Apologies for the minor outburst of self-publicationing (since I've been joining the RPS forums, we launched two games I never mentioned ;)), but I'm finally in a position to actually publish a game I'll spent the weekends playing myself way after I'm supposed to!
Looks intriguing. I'm playing the hell out of Planes of the Duelwalkers (or something) right now so I would be up for more of that kind of thing.
Is there a price for the booster packs yet?
It looks rather good and entertaining! I am interested, or was until I discovered (though not to my surprise) that the artwork is very good but includes all of the ubiquitous immodesty that has come to be expected of fantasy-style artwork.
So I will pass (as I presume it's not possible or at least easy to mod the card appearances, and judging from the screenshots it would take a rather lot of modding to make an army of fully-clothed people) -- but with a twinge of regret over the fun I might have had. =)The Secret of Gargoyle Manor, a browser point-and-click adventure about retrieving your lost hat whatever the cost, is something you could play!
Seems interesting. The english site layout seems a bit wrong though.
And now I have to wait 21 days to actually try it out. Waiting, yay.
Nice to polish my german a bit though :P
Prizing is still under discussion. Booster packs will come with 15 cards, but since we're all going to play on the same global server (and we have some TOUGH Koreans there who've been playing for a few months already, ho boy), prizing is a bit tricky and we're still figuring out how to make enough money not to starve while still not trying to give players the feeling they got fleeced. It's a surprisingly delicate balance.
There are also ways of earning free booster packs by regularly participating in games - deckbuilding is a lot of fun, and we don't want to keep the fun bits from the people who haven't decided yet whether or not to support us.
I'm afraid there's nothing I can do about the artwork-style, Berzee... please note that the game is rated 15+, and you need to be 18+ to sign up with us on the German service anyway. :) If you still want to give it a try, you'll be a happier person if you don't play Red or Green decks.
I am afraid I am not qualified to comment on the design of our US colleagues. They're doing their own thing, but I'll gleefully forward your comment.
No probs, Vex! Just wanted to speak up for my particular minority-within-teh-games =)The Secret of Gargoyle Manor, a browser point-and-click adventure about retrieving your lost hat whatever the cost, is something you could play!
Ok I'm interested.
How does it play, is it similar to any existing card games trade-able or otherwise?
We've been described as a mix between Magic and the WoW TCG (which I admittedly never played), with better artwork and cleaner mechanics.
One of the local G´ameMasters in Korea was 2010's South Korean champion in Magic, so we got some really experienced people working at it - which is one of the reasons I'm so happy about promoting (and playing) the game myself.
Thanks for your interest, guys. If you do decide up for the German service, drop me a pm with your account name so I can make sure you get a beta-spot - they're mine to give away, after all!
Tomorrow is the big day - evening for Europe, morning for the US people.
For the Beta, that is, not the live service.
We'll be throwing tons of in-game currency at players to purchase tons of cards to test tons of things. Now's the time to go crazy and experiment around for free.
We also added many features that players requested, such as the ability to have "multicolour" decks. With a twist. Previously, it was only possible to use cards (of which there are tons) determined by the faction of your hero. Now you can use whatever card you wish - but whenever you play a card that's not from your hero's faction, you take a point of damage.
This allows half a billion strategies even with just the starter decks, and there's a lot of lively discussions on our forums for that already. :)
We absolutely hope to see you online with us (both the US and us Germans will share a server).
After we kind of killed the online userbase of Magic the Gathering on Steam last weekend (they were down by 30% compared to their usual numbers, we apparently had three times as many people on our servers), we think we're doing something very, very right.
And while our colleagues Americana are appropriately shy, just let me tell you that we're going live tomorrow at 6pm CET both with the German version of Carte at carte.gamescampus.eu and the English version on carte.gamescampus.com. On the global server, you'll be able to also play versus Korean and Japanese player, who are an immensely tough nut to crack.
Hope to see you guys online. Also hope I'll finally be able to catch some sleep again - the past few days have been ridiculously exhausting, but I am just as ridiculously excited about the game.
- Join Date
- Mar 2012
- Location
- Stuttgart, Germany
- Posts
- 1
Hello Vexing,
Lucky for me I was on the look for a TCG and found this thread. I downloaded and installed Carte yesterday and was hooked. Read the rules, played the quick tutorial and then I went ahead and played a dozen matches against the CPU. I like the Carte mechanics very much. Looking forward to see how I feel in a week or two but for now it's great.
One thing which I am curious about though: The shop system with the boosters and cards. I feel very much overhelmed. Looking at them all I feel like an ant looking through the big window and don't know what to buy. There is a whole lot of episode packs. I am not sure I understand them though. Where should I start?
Last edited by shawk; 12-03-2012 at 06:43 PM.
I'll second that. As a new player I could use a "recommended starter pack" or something like. What is the difference between the episodes even?
Otherwise quite enjoyable.
- Join Date
- Mar 2012
- Posts
- 1
Same hre!
I really liked the game, the thing to be said is the same said by the others. "Booster shop is confuse indeed".
I can't know what to buy. What's the difference between them? Or episodes?
However, gtz for the game! Keep playing hre! =)
It's something we're definitely working on...
Basically, these boosters come out once every 30 to 50 days, like different editions of Magic. You can see the cardlist in each of the ones you buy.
For starters interested in investing something, we did prepare a couple of starting decks. Click on "Deck Shop" (I think, I don't have the English client installed) instead of "Booster Shop", those give you predesigned decks that are quite punchy. And can be plucked apart for the cards, too.
- Join Date
- Jan 2012
- Posts
- 495
I played MtG casually for many years as a kid. Initially there was a thrill of sorts in trading the cards. With very little money to spend and no card shops, trading with other players was the only way to increase the quality of my card pool and build towards better decks. No one was yet looking up ready-made deck lists from the internet, either.
Thing is, I never was interested in collecting, and the acquiring, organizing and sleeving cards all gets in the way of actually playing. That's why I'm now leery of any collectible game. I wonder how feasible it would be to have a non-collectible card game where you could build decks out of a wide card pool; building decks is still fun.
I was just thinking about buying a new non-collectible card game to play with friends - David Sirlin's Yomi.
Last edited by victory; 19-03-2012 at 08:51 AM.
Dominion is very good, technically a boardgame, but you build your deck during the game.Admin for the RPS Divisions of Death
General Spreadsheet busybody
Chrom - PerpetuumWhen asked, he merely responded with a wry bleat followed by a swift kick to the testicles.- Rakysh
- Join Date
- Jan 2012
- Posts
- 495
Carte will be real Free2Play - you will be able to upgrade your decks by buying random booster cards, but good players will be able to win booster packs for free (by playing regularly), and will have access to all content.
- Join Date
- Jun 2011
- Location
- Spainishtan
- Posts
- 1,850
The TCG model needs to die already, LCG is the way to go.


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ONE of East Lancashire's tiniest ever babies, born weighing less than a bag of sugar, has celebrated her 21st birthday.
Student Lauren McGovern fitted into the palm of her father's hand when she was born 15 weeks early weighing just 1lb 12oz.
Doctors initially feared for the future of the tiny tot, who spent several months in an incubator fighting off infections.
But to her parent's relief she was finally allowed home at four-months-old weighing just 4lbs 6oz.
Miraculously, Lauren has never suffered any lasting results of being born prematurely and is now studying to be a social worker at the University of Central Lancashire.
The mother-of-one, from Burton Street, Rishton said: "When I look at pictures of myself in the incubator I find it really difficult to think of that as me. It must have been really difficult for my parents. Luckily, I have never had any of the side affects that come with a premature birth including poor eye sight or deafness.
"I now have a 20-month-old son of my own called Bradley and I couldn't be happier."
Lauren's mum Joanne McGovern said she and her husband Sean lived day by day while their first born battled on in hospital. She said: "The whole situation was absolutely terrifying for us.
"Other premature babies were dying around us from similar infections to what Lauren had, but she was a little fighter.
"When we got her home she still wasn't as big as many new-born babies.
"We used to take her out in the pram and people couldn't get over how small she was.
"But by the time she had reached two years old she had caught up with other children her age.
"When she became pregnant with Bradley I did worry that she might have a premature birth, but it all went brilliantly.
"The extra care she needed at birth really created a special bond between us."
Lauren now plans to celebrate her 21st birthday in style with a party for all her friends and family at at Blackburn Golf Club.


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DETROIT - Authorities say a woman trying to enter Detroit City Hall was stopped after security officers found a gun in her purse.
Wayne County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Paula Bridges says the woman and a man from California were stopped Tuesday afternoon at the security gate on the ground floor of the Coleman Young Municipal Center. She describes the gun as a .38 caliber.
The woman was arrested and will be charged with carrying a concealed weapon, Bridges said. She will be arraigned Wednesday.
The man with her will not be charged.
Local 4 has learned when the woman's purse went through the checkpoint alarms sounded and she was immediately detained by Sheriff's deputies. The magnet-driven checkpoint machine itself confiscated the weapon.
The security equipment is less than 1 year old. It was purchased for City Council through a grant from U.S. Homeland Security.
"I fell perfectly safe and I'm glad they caught whoever brought in a gun either intentionally or unintentionally," said City Council President Pro Tem Gary Brown.
The City Council building is operated by the Detroit-Wayne Building Authority and patrolled by the Sheriff's Office.
City Hall has guards, metal detectors and other screening for the public.
Brown said he is more concerned about last week's courtroom incident when Oakland County Medical Examiner L.J. Dragovic suffered a heart attack on the stand which sent deputies scrambling for safety equipment.
"We're more likely to have an incident with a heart attack in this building than having someone get shot in this building. So, I'm more concerned about where the defibrillators are and can people operate them and find them when they need them," he said.
The building authority says it has no plans to change the security after this incident. However, it has been pushing to make it so everyone except elected officials would have to undergo screening to get into City Council.
The next meeting is Thursday morning.
Copyright 2012 by ClickOnDetroit.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


text:
Ming's on top of the world in Napa Valley, affectionately known as the Spring Mountain District where he's joined by his parents, Steven & Iris Tsai. Together they show us the perfect culinary marriage of chicken, duck and wine when they create Coq au Vin and Red Roast Duck with Scallion Pancakes.
Visit the Website: http://www.ming.com/simplyming
Episode #910 / Length: 26 minutes


text:
Respironics California, Inc. – Class 1 Recall: V60 Ventilators – Issue with software
AUDIENCE: Risk Manager, Anesthesiologist, Surgeon
ISSUE: Respironics California, Inc. has initiated a recall on the V60 ventilator because of an issue with the software on the V60 Power Management Board Assembly. If a component fails on the Power Management Board Assembly, it may cause ventilator support to be lost with potentially no audible alarm from the ventilator. This recalled product may cause serious adverse health consequences, including death.
The recalled products were distributed from November 16, 2009 through March 28, 2013.
BACKGROUND: On June 3, 2013, Philips Healthcare sent a "MEDICAL DEVICE CORRECTION" letter to all customers who received the V60 Ventilators. The letter described the product, the problem, and the actions to be taken.
RECOMMENDATION: Customers were informed that the V60 ventilator may continue to be used according to its directions for use, pending the completion of the software update. In addition, customers were instructed to refer to their manual for additional information on warnings.
A Philips Field Service Engineer, Approved Service Provider, or Distributor will be contacting customers to schedule a no-cost update and replacement of the Power Management Board Assembly Software on all V60 ventilators shipped from the manufacturer prior to April 1, 2013.
To find Respironics Material P/N (Philips 12 Digit P/N) and Serial Numbers that are affected by this recall please see: http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfRes/res.cfm?ID=118739
Customers were instructed to contact their local Philips Respironics representative at 1-800-722-9377 for any further information or support concerning this issue.
Read the complete MedWatch Safety Alert, including a link to the Recall Notice, at:


text: Harris' leadership of Thorntons' retail strategy has helped result in the chain's unprecedented growth, says Thortons CEO. Thorntons Inc. has named Tony Harris chief operating officer (COO) of the Louisville, Ky.-based convenience store chain. Harris will be responsible for operations, marketing, gasoline pricing, brand management, customer experience and retail strategy. A Thorntons Inc. veteran of


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People sometimes write in, saying they want to get married. OK, you want to get married, but what qualities have you? Can you say you have given up everything for Allah? That you strive day and night to spread His religion? Let us hear it then. Do you say, let Allah show me Hazrat Mahdi (as) and the Prophet Jesus (as)? Let us hear it. That young girl has a duty to seek the person with the greatest piety. What would a woman have done in the time of our Prophet (saas)? She would have chosen our Prophet (saas). Because a young girl does not get married so the man can find relief. That is hugely annoying and belittling. It is an insult for a young Muslim girl. The duty of a Muslim woman is not to show the man a good time, but to spend all eternity with someone whose piety enjoys the greatest level of Allah's approval, who has the best qualities to earn the greatest extent of Allah's good pleasure in this world. A young girl wonders what kind of marriage she must make to ensure the greatest amount of Allah's approval. Women wondered in the time of our Prophet (saas). How can I best serve Allah's religion? How can I earn most of Allah's approval in this world and the hereafter? Who is there as a spouse? The Messenger of Allah (saas). He is the most pious, has the best moral values and the most learning, and it is he who can most spread Allah's religion. Why should she reject him? Someone else say, I want to take it easy. You cannot say that to a Muslim woman. That is very ugly. A Muslim woman's duty is to earn as much of Allah's approval as possible. Nobody can use anyone else as a servant in that sense. She cannot be there just for his comfort. That is to see women as cheap and worthless. Pay up and take her away – that kind of mentality. No pious woman would ever agree. What does a Muslim woman look for? She looks for the most pious man. In the same way that women chose our Prophet (saas) in the time of the Messenger of Allah (saas). And she wishes to marry him and serve Allah's religion with him. She does not seek wealth, or comfort, or food and drink, or youth or anything to keep her parents entertained. Her sole aim is to earn as much of Allah's approval as possible. And so long as she does not abandon that mindset, other people will see they are on the wrong path. A Muslim woman bears the spirit of Allah. A modest person who has come here for a brief test. The life of paradise does not end even after one quadrillion, quadrillion years. Even then, it has only just begun. It is right at the beginning. The life of paradise is that long. Why should a woman look for someone who will be a scourge for that length of time? Why should she choose something so belittling?
For that reason, what a Muslim man must seek most is as much as possible of Allah's approval. In seeking the most of Allah's approval he will accept wherever Allah takes him. He will do what the Prophet Solomon (as) and the Prophet Moses (as) did. What did the Prophet Moses (as) say? "My Lord, I am truly in need of any good You have in store for me." It means seeking the most of Allah's approval. Whatever happens in destiny. One cannot seek marriage in particular, one's own pleasure. Let them look at the lives of the prophets. When did they seek their own pleasure and self-interest? Allah sent them blessings. They did not seek those blessings out. Marriage came to them. They did not look for marriage. The women who loved them came to them. They did not look for property or possessions. Property and possessions came to them. They fled the world, but the world followed them. That is why a Muslim must seek only as much of Allah's approval as possible. What eases a Muslims heart? Repetition of the name of Allah, our Lord says. The heart of someone who repeats the name of Allah finds ease. That is a very infuriating kind of language. One cannot say I want to marry a woman to take things easy. A Muslim has but one aim, to seek the most of Allah's approval. Some people may say, "I am always travelling about." They then say there is a verse of the Qur'an about it. Does Allah tell you to go on your travels when Muslims are dying? There is a time for everything. If one does not seek the most of Allah's approval, the result is a very off mindset. That is why it is key, vital to seek Allah's approval. Someone may say, Allah, I must get married and become rich. OK, but in what order? In that case, you are abandoning Allah's approval. Do people not want as much merit as possible? Muslims want as much merit as possible. If you seek little of Allah's approval, then that is a complete rejection. Allah may approve of one thing once, but of something else a thousand times. You must seek that which He approves of a thousand times.
(A response to a viewer who wants prayer "to get married, not for Islamic Union.")
Some people do not care in the least about Islamic Union or Turkish-Islamic Union or Somalia or Afghanistan or Pakistan or East Turkestan. They do not care about the people being beaten in East Turkestan. You can see what they are preoccupied with, what they are concentrating on. They do not say, "Our brothers must pray for Islamic Union." They have other priorities.
The apathy and collapse of conscience in some people... In East Turkestan they stretch Muslims out and break their arms. They crush the fingers of tiny children. They kick anyone in range. They take young girls away at midnight. They take them off to Mao's brothels, tens or hundreds of thousands of young East Turkestan girls. But some people don't care, they just worry about getting married. This person wants us to pray for him to get married. May Allah bring you to your senses and make you a supporter of Islamic Union, insha'Allah. That is what your most urgent need is.2012-10-31 14:22:18


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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 8/2/2013 (1656 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
LOS ANGELES -- Celebrities walking the carpet in flashy, wild and revealing outfits has come to be an expected part of the award show experience, and the Grammys are no different.
But on the heels of a Super Bowl broadcast that included the game MVP dropping an f-bomb on national TV, CBS executives have reached out to those attending music's biggest night with a simple directive: cover up.
According to an emailed "Wardrobe Advisory" sent by the network's Standards and Practices committee -- first obtained and reported by Deadline -- the network wants all breasts and buttocks to be covered.
"Thong type costumes are problematic," reads the email. "Please avoid exposing bare fleshy under curves of the buttocks and buttock crack. Bare sides or under curvature of the breasts is also problematic."
CBS executives, seemingly concerned with the potential of wardrobe malfunctions, also caution against sheer see-through clothing, which could "possibly expose female breast nipples."
The email spells out -- in capital letters -- that obscenity on clothing is unacceptable.
Some of the most memorable Grammy outfits -- including Jennifer Lopez's 2000 Grammy outfit, a nearly-see through green-blue dress slit directly down the front, as well as more recent outfits worn by artists such as Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Pink -- would certainly not meet the CBS guidelines.
CBS officials did not return calls for comment, but the network has been proactive and defensive about celebrity attire during its broadcasts in the past.
After broadcasting the infamous Janet Jackson nipple slip during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show, CBS told Jackson and Justin Timberlake that they must apologize during that year's Grammys in order to appear. He did, she didn't.
-- Los Angeles Times


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The Sony M600i has all you need to keep in touch with friends and colleagues in every way, every day. It gives you secure push email, internet and company intranet access. Surf the Web. Download music and video. Enjoy fast-moving games and your favourite music wherever you go. And when you're browsing the Web with your M600i, you can still make and take calls. The M600i is a true 3G multitasking device.
The slim form factor makes the M600i easy to carry, hold and use. You can carry it comfortably in your pocket or in a bag. It has its own dual-function keyboard and dedicated function keys. The touchscreen and Jog Dial navigation make using the M600i easy and intuitive. A large screen is excellent for watching video, viewing images and reading email and other messages


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Thursday, 09 27, 2012
Jamie NealPublic Information Specialist502-573-2350, x 50033 firstname.lastname@example.com http://courts.ky.gov
FRANKFORT, Ky. -- Carole Henderson, budget director for the Administrative Office of the Courts, has received the Chief Justice's Special Service Award for her distinguished service to Kentucky and her dedication to maintaining financial stability for the state Judicial Branch during a period of historic funding challenges. Chief Justice of Kentucky John D. Minton Jr. presented the award to Henderson at the Kentucky Bar Association's annual banquet June 7 in Louisville.
"Carole has been largely responsible for keeping the Judicial Branch afloat throughout the great recession," Chief Justice Minton said. "She has dedicated her entire career to the court system and has arguably put in more hours than any other employee during her 21 years of service.
"Without a doubt, Carole has proven herself to be the most valuable player on my team and I am so happy to have the opportunity to recognize her publicly for her tremendous service to the commonwealth and to me personally during my tenure as chief justice. She is a true workhorse and one of the unsung heroes of the court system. I can't thank her enough for the work she has done to improve the court system."
Henderson began work at the AOC in 1991 as a judicial secretary in the Budget Department and was later promoted to budget analyst. While working full time and raising two children, she enrolled full time at Midway College and earned her bachelor's degree in 1999. In 2004, she was promoted to deputy budget director and four years later became budget director. In 2009, she assumed oversight of the judicial center construction program when the Division of Capital Construction was put under the AOC Office of Budget and Policy. She recently began overseeing the AOC Division of Accounting and Purchasing.
Henderson and her husband, Nelson, reside in Frankfort and have two children, A.J. and Lauren.
Administrative Office of the CourtsThe AOC is the operations arm for the state court system and supports the activities of nearly 3,300 court system employees and 403 elected justices, judges and circuit court clerks. As the fiscal agent for the state court system, the AOC executes the Judicial Branch budget.
To view press releases related to specific topics, select the desired topic or topics and click "View Press Releases" button.
1001 Vandalay Drive, Frankfort, KY 40601


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>Health and Nutrition>Quick Survey: pre-marathon meal. Go!
2 easy questions.
1- what do you eat before your marathon, and
2- how long before the race do you consume it?
I don't half-ass anything
"I have several close friends who have run marathons, a word that is actually derived from two Swahili words: mara, which means 'to die a horrible death' and thon, which means 'for a stupid T-shirt.' Look it up." - Celia Rivenbark, You Can't Drink All Day if You Don't Start in the Morning
Two pop tarts. Raspberry. About two hours before the race, washed down with some Gatorade.
"When a person trains once, nothing happens. When a person forces himself to do a thing a hundred or a thousand times, then he certainly has developed in more ways than physical. Is it raining? That doesn't matter. Am I tired? That doesn't matter, either. Then willpower will be no problem." Emil Zatopek
Half a bagel w/ cream cheese. The other few times where I've had a croissant or a full bagel or yogurt or something I've had very bad stomach problems. I don't ever eat anything before long runs, though.
PB&J (or nutella) on a lightly toasted english muffin or bagel w/ coffee 2 hours prior.
Same meal for all races.
Interval Junkie --Nobby
Greek yogurt and granola 2hrs before the run. Blueberries if I can swing it.
2016 Goals: Lose the 10lbs I gained for not having goals
Strawberry frosted poptarts two hours before the race......and coffee.
201x goals: run a bunch....race some.....repeat...
I'm a pop tart kinda guy, too. Cinnamon sugar flavor, 1-2 hours pre-race.
2 cups of coffee.
I got the pop tart idea off of someone on RA. Made sense to me and it works well!
Oatmeal is an ideal one, but often runners find themselves away from a place to cook it up on race morning or the travel time doesn't allow for a hot bowl of the good stuff, so the pop tart is super.
I got the pop tart idea off of someone on RA. Made sense to me and it works well!
I think that the pop tart idea originated with Trent. I tried it once and was sold. Easily digested.....tops off the glycogen.....no fuss....no muss.
Just bought three boxes of Pumpkin Pie Pop Tarts from Target. Damn good.
Sweet potato, larabar and raisins. My new paleo gig.
2013 Goals: Stay healthy and Sub 3:30. PR HM, 10K, 5K...etc....lose 5 lbs, get Michelle Obama arms.
My wife makes sausage muffins that are essentially a sausage biscuit but all mixed together before baking. They taste great and have some carbs and some protein. I have been testing those out before long runs for 3 weeks and so far I like it. I think this will be my pre-marathon snack before Rocket City:
2 Sausage muffins and a cup of coffee. 90 minutes before start.
Nashville, TN
Best Present Ever
Oatmeal -- not instant -- and almond butter. Or, if not in a place where I can make oatmeal, greek yogurt and Ezekial cereal.
flatland mountaineer
I've only done half marathons so I just need one pop-tart 2 hrs or so before. Used to always try to do oatmeal w' raisins but logistics make it hard sometimes, now just do a pop-tart for most any race.
The whole world said I shoulda used red but it looked good to Charlene in John Deere Green!!
Support Ethanol, drink the best, burn the rest.
Run for fun? What the hell kind of recreation is that? quote from Back to the Fut III


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At Barn Light Electric our aim is to bring high quality fixtures to any business, giving owners the opportunity to maximize their building's décor. This selection of commercial lights calls back to vintage warehouse shade styles. Prominent as gas station lighting before the advent of neon signs and other more modern options, angle shade sign lights adapted the shape of early RLM lighting. Sign lights were equipped with a sloping gooseneck arm and flared angle shade to direct a powerful beam of light wherever needed. Fulfilling the function of casting light onto company signs and billboards, angle shade lights also contributed to the overall style of a building.
Our sign lights are made similarly to those vintage lights, handcrafted pieces sure to highlight your space with a timeless, classic style. Available in a range of styles and finishes, these angle shade light fixtures are American made. For a commercial angle shade light that will last for decades, consider the Firechief Angle Sign Light. Its porcelain coated steel shade has a durable finish capable of maintaining its vibrant hue for years. For twice the lighting consider our Dual Arm Angle Shade Sign Light, showing off two of our angle shades mounted to a single arm.
We love when our customers get creative, using our fixtures in imaginative ways. A popular innovation with angle shade lights is bringing them into a business's interior, utilized to accent the menus in restaurants or artwork in galleries. Sign lighting has even been employed in residential settings, placed above interior fireplace mantles.


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Forum:Let's make it official. Uncyclopedia's National Anthem
From Uncyclopedia, the content-free encyclopedia
Romartus nominated it a few years ago, and I ask the assembled masses "What are we waiting for?" Put the suspense out of its misery and lets make this Uncyclopedia's National Anthem. "What?" you say. "But I have a nominee too". Ha! If we want satire, playfulness, biting humor (of the hand that feeds it), and something that contains everything from midgets to ho's to WTF's to pregnant women (look at them, msnbc, all the women in the video are pregnant! Every last one! psssst, don't tell him otherwise. thanks.), this video has it. We can put it on the rules page, put it on some other pages, and use it in place of canned laughter whenever we need it. We need a boost in energy here, and this is one legal way to boost it. Hail to Uncyclopedia's National Anthem, long may it be lipsynced by the best in show business. Aleister 22:53 1-2-'13
Vote Vote Vote
- Are you serious? But of course, this is really great. Thanks Al, and a big thanks to Romartus for introducing it. Aleister 22:55 1-2-'13
- You're perfectly correct! Even if Oscar Wilde were dancing naked with a potato we couldn't make it more uncyclopedian A different user 02:19, February 2, 2013 (UTC)
- For. I always liked that tune, but this is the first time I'd seen the video (I didn't have cable back in the 80s so never watched MTV.)-- Simsilikesims(♀GUN) Talk here. 03:50, February 4, 2013 (UTC)
- I used to have the 12" on vinyl. (But then we all dressed badly in the 80's.) • Puppy's talk page • 04:19 04 Feb
- for --ShabiDOO 05:48, February 5, 2013 (UTC)
- Against. not original to uncyclopedia. --Mn-z 20:54, February 5, 2013 (UTC)
- That's pretty good, never saw it before. What's its history? It does go along with Rule 3 "Dance like you've never danced before" Aleister may have changed my vote


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Did you know?
Art Deco is characterised by geometric designs, bold colours, and the use of plastic and glass.
The 1930s was boom time in South Africa. The international demand for gold was high and we had it to burn. Buildings were going up like umbrellas in the rain. Art Deco was the fashion and South Africans were very fashionable.
Although things have moved on, the legacy of this period still remains. Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban all have some magnificent examples of the style.
In Johannesburg the Astor Mansions is one of the best examples of Art Deco buildings in South Africa. Erected in 1932, the arch inset echoes the Chrysler building in America. At 11 storeys it was the tallest building in the city at the time.
His Majesty's on Commissioner is a veritable 'palace' and stunning example of the period, taking up a whole block with 3 office towers. It was the home of the first radio broadcasting service in South Africa and activist icon Joe Slovo also had his offices there. The East Rand town of Springs is said to contain the 2nd most Art Deco buildings in the world - behind South Beach, Miami, USA.
The Mutual Heights building in Cape Town is one of the most gorgeous Art Deco buildings in Africa. At the time of its construction it was the tallest building in Africa bar the pyramids and its residents claimed it had the fastest lifts. Carved figurines and detailed relief give the building its dramatic facade. The double volume foyer looks like something out of a Bogart film. Whilst it may not be the tallest building anymore, the lifts are still fast.
If jazz chevrons and geometric eagles speak to your inner deco, the Colonial Mutual Building in West Street in Durban will get your pulse racing. Aside from the classic Art Deco styling the building also incorporates animal motifs symbolic of its place in Africa. It probably contains the only Art Deco antelopes in the world.
There are tours available of the Art Deco buildings in most cities.
Travel tips & Planning info
Who to contact
Parktown and Westcliff Heritage Club
Tel: +27 (0)83 300 8084
Durban Art Deco Society
Tel: +27 (0)31 301 1951
How to get here
Johannesburg, Springs, Cape Town and Durban all have stunning examples of the style. All three cities are serviced by international airports.
Best time to visit
It is possible to see these edifices all year round.
Get around
Walking is the best possible way to explore these marvels of modern architecture. There are a number of walking tours.
What will it cost
Whilst many of these buildings are national monuments there is no charge to look at them, although most are still being used so it might be difficult to see the interiors.
Where to stay
It is possible to stay in Mutual Heights in Cape Town


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Mason Stains and Slip
Posted 29 July 2011 - 11:17 AM
I use white clay that's left over from trimming, dry it, add water back to it, sieve and add stain color to that.
So far, my colors are working out pretty well using a 90/10 percent clay/stain.
The gray color of the clay makes it's visually hard to know if I'm adding enough stain to the slip until I bisque and then glaze.
Should the wet slip have an intensity of color when mixed or is it sometimes going to be "weak" in coloration?
What is an average percentage of stain to slip?
Are you supposed to add the dry stain to wet slip?
Should I be adding dry stain to dry clay and then add water?
I have been testing but that's a long trial and error process and I know there's potters with answers out there!
Thanks for any words of wisdom.
Posted 29 July 2011 - 11:50 AM
Your colored slips will darken as you fire so the initial wet color should never look as dark as you eventually want it. Some colors look washed out until they are fired ... then Wham!! So you just have to trust the fact that you have added enough. After bisque firing, wet the piece and that color will be very close to what it will look like at Cone 6.
In pinks, yellows, mauves, light green I add up to 20 - 25% depending on how bright I want the final color.
In dark colors like mazerine, brown, forest green ... 8 - 10% will do it.
I mix mine in a blender ... water, clay, stain.
For your own sanity, run some tests ... just lines of color on plain tiles of your clay.
Mix a measured batch at the highest concentration, then use a teaspoon to measure one part plain slip to one part saturated, then two parts plain to one part saturated ... this will give you a good idea of how quickly your colors change so you can guage what you like and how much you need.
flower_2_med.jpg 15.78KB 41 downloads
- sasijuhls likes this
Contemporary Fine Colored Porcelain
" If a sufficient number of people are different, no one has to be normal "
Fredrick Bachman
Posted 29 July 2011 - 01:27 PM
I would of course add to test before putting it on anything you want to keep!!
Remind me why I'm doing this????
-Beth Ward, Crone Potter
Posted 29 July 2011 - 06:07 PM
I agree with MadMudder that you're a good woman to answer my questions so well. This forum is a very useful place and, although this is my first post, I've gotten plenty of good info from other posters.
Posted 29 July 2011 - 08:34 PM
I can't help much with information for firing that low ... My Mason colors all get fired higher, so get brighter through heat work.
If I was firing that low I would probably use Amaco underglazes, since they are nice rich colors at that temp. I open the jars and let them thicken up to yogurt like cream, then use them like slips.
Contemporary Fine Colored Porcelain
" If a sufficient number of people are different, no one has to be normal "
Fredrick Bachman
Posted 01 August 2011 - 06:51 PM
I started low firing after going to a conference recently, liked what I saw and wanted to try it. The Mason stains are working very well at this temperature and create nice colors. There are so many things to try with pottery that it makes it very exciting to learn new techniques and be inspired by other potters. This community forum is great.
Posted 01 October 2012 - 07:27 PM
- DyAnn likes this
Posted 01 October 2012 - 09:05 PM
Posted 01 October 2012 - 10:55 PM
Posted 27 September 2016 - 05:27 PM
Even though this is an old thread, I'm going to add some information here for anyone looking for more details about mixing mason stains to make colored slip.
I've used both Mason Stains mixed with dried porcelain clay to make a slip and Velvet Underglazes as an alternative.
This is my opinion: Unless you need many different colors, I feel mixing your own colored slip is better. The mason stains can be expensive depending on the color, but a little dry powdered mason stain goes a long way. (making them economical to use) I usually only need to apply one coat and it is sufficient. The Velvet underglazes are quite expensive (for me) and take 3 coats to get good coverage. They do provide a nice smooth finish, and you can use them right out of the bottle, no mixing and measuring. However a slip made with Mason Stains can provide almost as smooth of a finish if you get all the little lumps out of it, and with only one coat. If there is a high spot, let it dry completely and use some extra fine sandpaper to smooth it out. (A word of caution, always wear gloves when working with mason stains, and if you sand on it, wear a mask).
I apply my mason stained slip to leather hard clay. After bisque firing, the mason stains (as well as the Velvets) will be matt. I use a zinc free clear gloss glaze, and fire to ^5 - ^6 in an electric kiln. The colors are vibrant.
As others have said, to get the exact color you want you'll have to test. But these are the colors and percentages I use, and that will give you a starting point.
Black 10%
White 20%
Tangerine 5% (fires to a med-orange)
Bermuda Blue/Green 12% (pastel, add a bit more for darker color)
Chartreuse 40%
Dark Turquoise 10% (pastel, add more for darker color)
Vanadium Yellow 12% (golden yellow)
Violet 40%
This is how I mix my mason stains to make colored slip:
I use porcelain clay when I throw, and I save all the "shavings" from when I trim. I let these dry completely, and then grind them (wear a mask!) in a mortar and pestle into a fine powder.
Using a gram scale, I start with 50g of powdered clay. Then add the mason stain according to the percentage. (In this example if 12% is needed, add 6g of stain.) Mix the mason stain into the dried slip until you have a uniform color. Add water, a little (like a teaspoon) at a time, stirring well, better to have it too thick than too thin to start off, you can always add more water at the end. I mix my slips to the consistency of pancake batter. Let it sit overnight. It will have thickened considerably. Stir it again and get it to the consistency you want by adding more water if necessary. Then pour (more like push and scrape) it through an 80 mesh sieve. This makes a small amount which I like because they tend to dry out and get gunky after about a month or two, and that's about how long it takes me to use it up. (except for black and white and I make 100g batches of those). Dried out slips can be re-constituted, with water, but I find this tedious. I keep my mixed slips in small plastic containers with tight fitting lids, and always give it a few sprays of water before putting it away. (I live in a very dry climate)
Hope you find this useful.
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/6/2013 (1533 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
A Manitoba woman has been accused of deliberately running over and killing her younger sister with a car.
Pandora Nancy Owens, 24, was arrested Tuesday and charged with first-degree murder for the incident in Little Grand Rapids. The charge indicates police believe the killing was a planned and pre-meditated act.
Madison Blossom McKay, 22, was struck by a vehicle around 5 a.m. and taken to hospital where she was pronounced dead. No other details about the incident have been provided by RCMP.
Owens is being held in custody without bail.
This is the second Manitoba homicide case in the past month involving a vehicle.
Leevan Johnson Harper, 19, of Wasagamack First Nation was run down on May 29 in that community.
Trevor Ronnie Knott, 18, has been charged with second-degree murder and remains in custody without bail.
Police say Knott and Harper were known to each other and had been "socializing" prior to the incident.


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By Gil Boggs
The University of Denver will offer a ballet history course this October and it will feature Colorado Ballet Artistic Director Gil Boggs as a guest lecturer on October 11. This class also includes a ticket to Colorado Ballet's The Sleeping Beauty and Colorado Symphony Orchestra's Petrushka. Enrollment is open until October 4.Ballet's Grand Jetés: From Swan Lake to Petrushka
Originally, ballet wasn't much more than gaudy entertainment for wealthy Italian dukes. But over the centuries, the music of great composers such as Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky elevated it to an honored—and well-traveled—art form. Enhanced by videos and an in-class visit from Colorado Ballet Artistic Director Gil Boggs, this course led by popular Enrichment instructor Marc Shulgold retraces ballet's evolution and journey (grand jetés!) across Europe. After its exportation to France in the 1500s, ballet flourished under Louis XIV. His love of dance encouraged court choreographers to add the perfume of French refinement. Though post-revolution Paris became Europe's dance capital, by the late 1800s ballet had packed its bags again—this time for Russia, where French-born dance-maker Marius Petipa teamed with Tchaikovsky to create masterworks that still captivate the world. (See for yourself when you attend Colorado Ballet's production of The Sleeping Beauty.) Then, in the early 1900s, a troupe of brilliant Russian dancers and choreographers—including young Igor Stravinsky—left their homeland and brought ballet back to Paris, scandalizing the city with new works that mixed classic beauty with modern eroticism. Conclude this journey of danse with a semi-staged performance of Stravinsky's Petrushka by the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. Performance tickets included. 10% discount to Ballet and Symphony subscribers.
Five sessions
Thur., 7–9 pm, Oct. 4, 11, 18, 2012
The Sleeping Beauty, Sat., 7:30 pm, Oct. 13,
Petrushka, Sat., 7:30 pm, Oct. 27,
Denver Performing Arts Complex
Marc Shulgold, music journalist, concert lecturer, teacher. After working at the Los Angeles Times for 12 years, Marc became the first—and the last—music and dance writer at The Rocky Mountain News, covering the cultural scene throughout the region for nearly 22 years.
Call 303-871-2291 or 1-800-347-2042, or email email@example.com.
PPE 0186 - Music/Dance: Ballet's Jetés


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A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Arrested Development
Frank Lloyd Wright used his textile block design concept in this Pasadena, California, residence built in 1923, but also made sure to incorporate homeowner Alice Millard's request of including a large ornate fire screen, rustic wooden doors, and 18th century Delft tiles. The house, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is for sale with pricing by request.
Inspired by Native American pottery, Frank Lloyd Wright designed the spherical-shape Pottery House in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in adobe — the only time he ever used the material. While plans for it were drafted in 1942, he was unable to finish the structure before he died, and the house wasn't completed until 1984. It's listed at $4,750,000.
A 100-Year-Old Hollywood Farmhouse Goes Modern With a Neutral Palette and Mirrors Everywhere